History Won't Repeat Itself
by No Pain No Gain
Summary: The harder the sun shines, the bigger the cast shadows are. Smiling faces hide conspirators. Innocent eyes hide warriors. Behind a tranquil, peaceful country, a dangerous plot is growing.And I am the key to either saving or dooming the New World. ZxL, AU
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes:**

**Guess what, my HUGE author's notes were lost when my internet connection failed before I could save them. I'm really good at losing things.**

**Anyway, first of all, I'm not dead. Yes. I'm not dead. Wow. Major shocker. Just had a loooong period of Writer's Block that just wouldn't go away. And now that I've started writing, I wrote really fast so that I could get this up quickly, so if you see any mistakes, any of them at all, please signal them to me! THANKS!**

**Then, I'd like to address a couple of cowards who are to scared to send me a signed review featuring their MaLink and yaoi comments. To Rytex, and linluvr90/Sheik's Wifey (pretty sure it's the same person), I can't stand MaLink, and I don't write yaoi, I just mock it. Besides, if Sheik was gay, how could you be his wife? *flips you two the finger* Please refrain from making any more of those fucking pointless coments. If you really want to, at least make them signed, you cowards. Thanks!**

**And congrats to Lady Zariah, Sleepy Wood and zelda4life, who entered Wavebreeze's and my ZeLink contest and won! ^^ About your oneshot, Lady Zariah, I PROMISE I'm thinking of it, but like I said, I'm having major writer's block,a nd I can't manage much right now D= I'm really sorry if it'll be there late, but one thing's for sure, it'll be there.**

**Aaaand... Yeah... This new story was inspired by my History classes. We're studying the history of Canada, who founded it and how people lived. So while I listened to the teach rambling about Christopher Columbus and Jacques Cartier, I figured I could make history fun. And this is what happened.**

**The title was cheap and extremely hard to find. I might change it if I get an illumination before the end of this fic. I planned roughly 10 to 15 chapters, depends how much new stuff I learn in class xDD In any case, I hope you guys like it! And let's hope my writing skillz aren't gone by now! xD **

**_Who ever said history is boring?_**

***************

The blinding sun overhead showered the green fields, casting one shadow on the brown soil underneath. That shadow kept moving in the same patterns, not even altering a bit. A bird called from overhead, soaring across the sunny sky that the average summertime afternoon offered to the inhabitants of Hyrule.

The shadow suddenly stopped moving, its caster emitting a weary grunt. And before anything else could happen, the shadow slowly got smaller and smaller until a full form had hit the ground, covering the shadow perfectly. Of average size, muscled, yet very thin, the body seemed like it belonged to a young man of an average of seventeen years old.

"Dear Sun. Why don't you send in some clouds and rain? Or why don't you hide for a while? How bout leaving me alone?" the caster of the shadow panted, wiping sweat off his forehead. The glowing drips of salty water slowly dripped off his fingers and splashed quietly on the ground.

Previously closed eyelids finally opened slightly, then slowly opened even more. Blue eyes that matched the colour of the sky overhead blinked a couple of times before closing again.

"So tired." The bearer of those azure eyes chuckled sadly before grunting and forcefully pushing himself up. A dusting sound disturbed the gentle chirping of the crickets as dust fell to the ground next to the man's bare feet. Finishing dusting off his old ankle-length olive pants, the man smiled and extended his hands in a cross as a fresh summer breeze blew around, strands of gold shining like the sun clouding the front of his blue eyes as the breeze pushed them around, the longer strands in the back floating against his bare skin, tickling his exposed spine.

A smile suddenly stretched on the face of the man as two scratched, hard, and used hands pushed away the hair clouding his face. The man lifted his smile and directed it at the shining sun, the rays glinting off his ivory teeth and illuminating his handsome face considerably.

The breeze came again, and this time the man smiled in delight.

"Feels great to have an occasional breeze here and there." he noted for himself, seeing as no one was around in the relatively large field he was in.

The blond man bent down and picked up a shovel, sighing in boredom, getting ready to go back to work when suddenly, another voice ripped through the air.

"OOOOI! LIIIIINK!"

The blonde's head snapped towards the sound as he heard his name. Recognizing the black-haired boy waving at him, he smiled back.

"DARK!"

The boy who was standing on the other side of a wooden fence that separated adjacent properties quickly cleared the fence in a single climb and jumped on the other side, running for Link.

Hey." the blonde smiled at the black haired newcomer. "How's it going, Dark?" he grinned.

"Good good. How's your work coming along? You sure you should be working on such a hot day?" he sighed, looking up at the sky. "Even my dad's not working today, why should you?" he asked, concerned.

"Cause. Have to." He winked and stuck a tongue out at his best friend. "I have to work if I wanna eat tonight." He smiled, turning around and making a hole in the ground with his shovel just to prove his point.

"Need help?" the teenager wearing a light black tank top and three-quarter pants asked, looking at his friend's work intently.

Link turned and looked straight into Dark's blood red eyes.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Dark. You know you're not allowed to be on my master's property anyway." He laughed. "Remember last time? He threw a fit." The blond playfully stuck his tongue out and grinned.

"You were grounded for two days." Dark lowered his head in a fake sob. "And I was stuck with Sheik."

"How is that a bad thing?"

Shooting up, the two boys scanned the environment until a tree not far from them rustled, and another blonde, dressed in a blue t-shirt and white shorts, dropped down and ran for them with a smile.

"Sheik." Link grinned, staring playfully at his equally azure eyes as a greeting.

"Sheik." Dark smirked.

"Come on Dark, you know you love me." The newcomer –Sheik- laughed, reaching the circle of the equally old boys with a smile.

"Heh." Link chuckled.

"So where's your old man anyway?" Sheik asked carelessly, looking around to make sure his friend's master wasn't spying on them.

"Don't call him that. Makes it feel like were actually related." Link rolled his eyes.

"Technically, not by blood, but considering it's been seven years you've been working for him…"

"Seven years is nothing." Link shrugged. "Even if it was seventy, I would NEVER call him related to me. Only reason why I'm still here is because I need someplace to stay." He threw a smug glare at the boys, knowing what their response would be.

"YOU CAN COME CRASH AT OUR PLACE!" was the immediate reply that came simultaneously from both boys as they raised their fists with a grin.

"Ehehe…" Link smiled crookedly, eyebrow twitching as he rubbed the back of his head. "You've told me that a million times before, and you know the answer, you two…"

"You can't because then you'd feel like you're abusing our generosity…" the two boys sighed at the same time, making a comical scene that made Link snicker.

"Exactly." He grinned.

Before any of them could go on on all the reasons he could come and stay at his place, small bells suddenly started tingling.

Everyone froze at that, the air heavy and silent. Even the birds seemed afraid to call out.

"It's him…" Link's eyes narrowed towards the house at the other side of the fields. "Go." With that single word, the two boys shot off in a single jump. In a blur of black and blue shadows, they disappeared behind the fence as Link quickly grabbed the rake and pretended he was working.

A shadow was cast across the fields, an ominous aura coming from the person who had just stepped out of the back door of the fairly large house. Keeping his eyes lowered and pretending to work, Link threw a quick glance across the field and looked at the newcomer.

Soft, yet firm footsteps echoed as a pair of sandaled feet started walking across the field, the sound getting closer and clearer to Link's pointed ears. Under his bent head, he just kept glaring at the old man who was walking towards him.

The man was wearing a sleeveless tan shirt that was laced with a rope at the hips. Brown shorts went under his shirt, leaving his knees open to the slow breeze that was lazily drifting through the field.

Not even daring to look further up than his shirt, Link looked back down again, facing the ground and raking some dandelions out of the tomato plants' space, keeping completely silent, not even daring to sigh or yawn. Slowly, the man calmly walked through the large field, then right past him. The young man didn't say a word.

Suddenly, the old man stopped a few feet behind Link. Link also stopped, feeling that the man wasn't advancing anymore.

"You forgot to greet me." A rough voice grunted, breaking through the flow of nature's peaceful noises.

"My apologies Sir. Good afternoon, Sir." Link quickly, yet carelessly answered, still raking, and bending down to pull out some weeds.

"Good." With that, the man kept walking. "After you finish with those weeds, you're dismissed."

Link didn't bother replying, knowing that the man wouldn't hear him. Shrugging, he silently continued his work, eager to finish.

"Hey, you forgot this patch." Came an amused voice.

The blonde lifted his eyes and saw Dark handing him a patch of bad weeds, Sheik standing behind him and observing his work silently.

"One step closer to finishing." He smirked, taking the patch and throwing it on the small pile he intended to burn.

"Come on." Sheik advanced and ripped out another patch. "We've just heard the best news ever. Better finish up so you can learn it too." He winked.

"Can't wait. Nothing interesting EVER happens here in Hyrule. All the excitement is always there in Termina. All that ever happens here is wars, and commerce. And most of the time, it doesn't even make much profits for us." He sighed.

"You really have nothing better to talk about, do you?" Dark laughed as he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit a stick.

"Not really." The blonde shrugged with a smirk.

"Alright, alright, less talk, more work. I can barely wait to tell you the news. And moreover, we cannot miss what's gonna happen." Sheik rolled his eyes, throwing a patch of spiky herbs onto the pile.

"Stop it, you're making me anxious." Link laughed.

"Well, it's something we should be anxious about, naturally." Dark shrugged, lifting the lit stick in the air, then throwing it on the pile of bad herbs, the flames and smoke immediately starting to devour the plants, clouding the vision of everyone around.

---

Later that evening, a few hours after Link finished his job, the three boys were sitting outside a local tavern. Joyous laughs and voices were coming from inside, the outside being much quieter. Light was filtering through the windows and the crack under the door, nonetheless leaving the shadows of the night rein on the country.

Sipping a cup of water, Link looked up at the sky. Stars were sparkling around the crescent moon, illuminating the otherwise dark sky. Next to him was Dark, leaning against a wooden fence, a mug of beer in his hands, also looking up and dreaming of the sky. Sheik was next to Dark, holding an empty mug, or more like dangling it from his fingertips. A fresh summer breeze blew through the night, making all three boys sigh in content.

"It's so peaceful tonight." Sheik noted.

"Yep..." only the wind brought a faint reply under Link's voice to the two other boys' ears.

They stood in silence, a small smile playing on their lips as they watched the sky.

The moment would have lasted forever if it wasn't for the slight disturbance in the wind. Instead of flowing perfectly, a rough, and broken breeze slapped the three boys in the face. The world seemed to freeze for just a millisecond before three mugs crashed to the ground, glass splintering everywhere and reflecting the light of the stars towards three pairs of bare feet who were now running off at an extremely high speed into the night.

---

"Please stop! Please! Don't come any closer!" a little girl's desperate pleas were muffled out by the snickering of older boys.

"Sister, I'm scared!" a little boy's sobs also found a way to break through the laughs.

"Don't worry, brother, don't worry, alright?" the girl's voice became gentler. A cloud passed over the moon, shadowing the elements of the scene for a moment, and as quickly as it came, it passed, the moon lighting a group of five people, three who were older than the two others.

"Yeah, don't worry, little boy, we just want your money and your sister, we don't want anything from you." A mocking voice reached the two children's ears.

"Please let us go... Please..." a soft plopping sound was heard as a drop of water splashed on the ground, altering the shade of the brown soil underneath. A couple more followed, a few dots of dark brown appearing next to two pairs of little feet. More and more came, until the sky started crying as well. The dark brown soil created by the salty drops melted into the rest of the ground as the drip-drip noise became a full downpour. The tears on the little girl's flushed face camouflaged in the raindrops that fell across her face.

Her green shirt and shorts clung to her tiny limbs as a result of the rain, mimicking her deep emerald hair that clung to her face and neck. Her jade eyes blinked a couple of raindrops or tears –she couldn't tell which- out of them, allowing her to keep an eye on her little brother who was clutching her clothes next to her.

The little boy was a lot smaller than her. His purple long-sleeved tunic that was already too big for him hung off his arms and went down until his knees, covering almost half of the orange 3/4 pants he wore underneath. The most unique part of this little boy was his purple hair, which extended down until the middle of his back and covered his right eye in the front. That way, he only needed to blink rain out of one of his crimson-coloured eyes. A small T-shaped scar ran under his eye, testament of an injury he had gotten a long time ago.

Their assailants were mostly cloaked in the shadows, difficult to see. The three of them were obviously males, judging by the black cloak that stuck to their nonexistent curves. They were tall and well-built, yet hard to distinguish from one another because of the darkness and the rain.

"Alright, this has gone on long enough." The male on the right of the center one sighed, advancing with a feral grin glinting under his hood.

The two children took a step back, scared. The male also advanced, the children stepped back. This continued until they hit the tree against which they had been cornered, the single male who had advanced looming over them.

The girl opened her mouth to scream. The rain was already loud enough, and getting harsher by the second. At this rate, no one would hear her cries.

Trembling, she raised her hands to her mouth and closed her eyes shut, taking a deep breath and getting ready to-

"You're attacking little girls now, Mido?" an arrogant voice suddenly cut through her attempt to scream, making all five people turn around.

There, in the rain, were standing three other figures, these ones pretty easily distinguishable as two blondes and one black-haired boy. The one in the middle stepped forwards, the two on his diagonal left and right mirroring him completely.

"I thought you had more taste than that." The middle one snickered.

"Shut your trap, kid." The leaders of the cloaked boys growled.

The middle blonde blinked a couple of times, and, ignoring the so called Mido, turned to the leader of the other gang.

"Long time no see, Byrne. How was college? Your father and I missed you in your absence." He smirked.

"SHUT UP!" the leader yelled at him. "One word from me and my father will get you flogged for talking to me like that!" he threw at him, enraged.

The blonde shrugged carelessly and grinned deviously at him. "One word from me, and the local police will get you arrested for assailing little girls." He laughed without humour.

The other boy sighed and growled under his breath, knowing the blonde had won this round.

"Fine." Was a simple whisper that reached the other seven's pointed ears, making all of them turn towards the so-called Byrne. "Mido, Sakon, let's go."

"Right." The two cloaked boys who came with Byrne answered simultaneously.

Byrne threw one last venomous look at the blonde who was smirking arrogantly, then jumped. With a whooshing sound, he landed on the tree branch above the little girl and jumped off onto the next one until he had disappeared into the forest. The two boys who came with him didn't waste any time following his exact footsteps.

Once the assailants were gone, the three remaining boys looked around to make sure they weren't coming back, then walked towards the two kids who were huddled up together on the muddy ground.

The blonde in front bent down to reach their size, and when he saw the green-eyed girl looking at him, he smiled sweetly.

"Come on, we're taking you home. On the way there, you can tell me all about yourself." He offered.

Albeit a little hesitantly, the little girl nodded and shakily got up, dragging her brother up with her.

"Good." The blonde smiled again, then turned back at the two boys behind him. "Sheik." He called in a short tone. The other blonde advanced and kneeled down to their size as well, putting two fingers from each hand on the two kids' foreheads. The little boy shied away, burying his face in his sister's clothes, but the girl looked up, slowly trusting the strangers who had helped them.

Sheik nonetheless put his fingers against the boy's wet purple hair, and closed his eyes. A soft blue glow shone around his fingers for just a few seconds, then dimmed, stealing the light in the girl's astonished eyes.

"The girl's tired and still a bit scared, and the kid's tired, scared and confused. Nothing too bad." He reported back to his blonde leader.

"How'd you do that, mister? Are you a Sheikah?" the girl asked in a voice just above a whisper, cutting through the affirmative nod that the leader threw at Sheik.

Sheik smiled at the girl and nodded. "Yes I am. Trained and ready to perform."

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed, joy returning to her eyes.

"All of us here are Sheikahs. We've all gone to the Sheikah academy, and we graduated to the top level of the academy. You can trust us. We Sheikahs aim to help the people." The blonde explained.

"Remember, Link, not ALL of them." The black-haired boy behind him whispered.

Link turned around and shot a look at the black-haired boy.

"Well, not a lot of them, right Dark?" he asked rhetorically.

"Of course. Most Sheikahs are good guys." Dark answered, seeing those jade-coloured eyes diluting.

"We're those mean boys Sheikahs too? I saw them jump on that tree in one jump." She asked.

"Yes, they were. But you don't need to worry anymore. We drove them off for good." Link smiled. "Now enough chitchat, we can talk on the way home, alright?" he asked.

"Okay." The girl nodded.

"Alright." Link grunted as he put his arms under the girl's armpits and pulled her up, carrying her against his chest. "Dark." He instructed.

"Sure." Dark bent down and did the same to the purple-haired boy, who was throwing a worried crimson-eyed glance at his sister in the arms of the kind stranger.

"Sheik." Was the last word Link spoke, and nothing more was needed for Sheik to understand.

He slowly brought his hands together, and clapped, following by a hand sign, and another one. By the third, he closed his eyes, and softly called "Shield".

A soft blue dome shimmered above them and took consistency, encasing the five people in a bubble that kept them safe from the rain.

"There. Now you can tell me where you live." Link prompted.

"We live by the riverbank, in a small house made up on the trees." She answered, yawning after that.

"A tree house, huh? That must be cool." Link remarked.

"Yeah, except that sometimes, it gets tiring to climb the ladder to the top." She sighed tiredly.

"And how about your names? We didn't quite catch that." Dark smiled, nudging the boy in his arms to make sure he was still awake.

"I'm Saria." The green-eyed girl turned to Dark with a gentle smile.

"And you?" the black-haired boy turned down and looked at the crimson-eyed boy, who shied away from him.

"Go ahead, bro, tell him your name." Saria prompted.

"Va... Vaati..." the little boy whispered shyly, turning his head into Dark's black shirt just as he finished talking.

The four others laughed at the boy's shyness, but didn't linger on what made him uncomfortable.

"So... Saria... Tell us about yourself. I'm sure we've seen you a couple of times in the village, but I personally have never gotten a chance to meet you." Link smiled, keeping his eyes on the soil road up ahead that took a turn to go back to the village.

"Well, I'm eight years old. My favourite colour is green," the three boys snickered collectively at that "and I like the nature. My favourite insects are butterflies, because they're so pretty. My favourite pet is my dog. His name is Tael." She smiled.

"Oh, you have a dog then! What race?" Sheik prompted.

"German shepherd." She laughed, making all the boys raise their brows. A delicate little girl and his brother owning a German shepherd? Contrast...

"How about your parents?" Dark asked.

"My mom is very pretty, but she's old." The three boys started laughing at that, making the girl blink and wonder what she said wrong. "She loves us a lot too. I'm sure she's very worried right now."

"And your dad?" Sheik asked.

"I don't know, I've never met my dad. Mom said he left before I was born." Saria made a cute pouty face, diminishing the guilt that Sheik felt by asking that question. Another factor that made the three boys redden is the thought that even though the father had left before the girl was born, Saria still had a younger brother.

"Alright, and how about your brother?" Link quickly changed the subject.

"Vaati." Saria softly called. The boy half-sleepily turned to her and cocked his head to the side. "Tell them about yourself." She smiled.

Vaati reddened –possibly even more than the boys who kept wondering the mystery of Vaati's birth- and brought a finger to his lips in deep thought.

"I'm Vaati. I'm six years old..." he started in a small, shy voice. "I love my mommy, my sister and my doggie. I also love my kitties at home. I like birds too." He lowered his eyes, then looked right back up at Sheik, who was facing him as they walked.

Surprisingly, the three boys saw that under that wet hair and that scared look, deep inside those red eyes, shone determination and admiration. That's when Vaati pointed his tiny finger at Sheik and stuttered out.

"And when I grow up, I wanna be like you."

---

When Link, Sheik and Dark reached the village, Saria and Vaati were already asleep in their arms. To their surprise, as well as their glee, they spotted a couple of moving lanterns in the village, probably looking for something or someone.

Accelerating their pace, they simultaneously took one last jump across the dirt path and made it to the side of a woman who was in the middle of all the operations, her hands on her mouth, apparently sobbing.

"Ma'am?" Sheik was the first to break the ice by tapping the woman's shoulder gently.

The green haired woman quickly whipped around, her long emerald shaded nightdress swishing on the wet ground and faced the newcomers with teary blue eyes. They quickly diverted to the two bundles curled up in the strangers' arms though.

"SARIA! VAATI!" she quickly exclaimed, shocked.

"I'm assuming you're their mother." Link gave a short, nervous laugh.

"Oh dear Goddesses, thank you so much! I was so worried!" she exclaimed, extending her arms. Link took that opportunity to gently set Saria in her arms, followed by Dark, who put Vaati next to her, somewhat surprised at the strength of the seemingly- 40 year old woman. "Thank you so much." She sniffled, kissing their foreheads once each before turning back at the boys who saved her children.

The three boys shrunk under her thankful gaze, never being the ones who liked accepting many praises.

"Oh! I know you! You're those Sheikah prodigies who graduated from the academy! And you!" she looked at Link in amazement. "You're the boy who-" she suddenly cut herself off, gasping and closing her mouth, biting her lip. "I'm sorry, never mind what I said." She stuttered, making the three boys, especially Link, raise their brows. "Anyway... Thank you so much... How can I ever repay you?" she asked, practically begging them to tell her what they want as compensation.

"It's alright, Ma'am... We just did our job: That's our motto, us Sheikahs. _Hide and live in the shadows, protect and die in the light_." Link scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

"I know that, of course, since I AM Midori, the Second Muratate of the village in the Blades of Grass, the leader of this village. I am also the one who contributed to the development of the academy in the Center Village, the academy where all Sheikahs go." She shook her head as to clear her thoughts. "Anyway, I digress..." she looked straight in front of her, expecting to see the three boys who saved her kids, but instead found nothing but air. Blinking in surprise, she looked down to see them kneeling in front of her.

"Oh no no no! This won't do, please get up, _I_ should be the one kneeling." She laughed nervously, making a sign for the three Sheikahs to get up.

Immediately getting up and facing the Muratate of the village, the three blushed. If only they knew that they'd saved the children of the Muratate, the successors of the village leader...

"Anyway, I desire to know your names, you, who have saved my children." She smiled sweetly, flipping over a strand of hair that had been wetted by the now-calming rain.

"My name is Link, Link Gaiden, My Lady." Link shortly lowered his head.

"Sheik. Sheik Akaikage." Sheik imitated Link.

"Dark. Dark Kuroikage." Dark followed in Link's and Sheik's footsteps.

"Ah, two members of the Kage clan I see." She smiled sweetly.

"Yes, we are both from the Kage clan of Termina. Our parents came here to escape the war in Termina. We were born and raised here, and now we live as neighbours on the outskirts of this village..." Sheik explained for the two of them.

"How about you, Link? Native Hylian?" Midori turned towards the blonde.

"Yes Lady Muratate. Born and raised here. My entire clan moved into the village of Erupting Volcanoes when the first Terminean settlers created it at the base of Death Mountain. Unfortunately, they all died in the settlers VS natives war that followed not long after. As a baby, I was brought back to the Lost Woods, and now I live on the outskirts of the village, with my employer, Sir Cole, and his son, Byrne." Link explained.

"My my my, all of you have such interesting pasts..." the lady marvelled. "You know, you're all welcome to come stay the night at my house. It's already very late, I'm sure your parents wouldn't worry if I sent them a messenger telling them you're here." She offered. "It's the least I can offer you as a thanks for bringing back my kids."

"No, that's quite alright... I need to get home anyway, I'm already late." Link sighed, looking up at the moon, now uncovered as the clouds carrying rain passed away.

"We'd love to, but it just wouldn't be fair if Link wasn't there with us." Dark apologized, throwing Link an amused sideways glance.

"Alright, I see. Well, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask, alright?" she smiled sweetly. "Now." She looked down to see Vaati stirring uncomfortably. "I should get these two to bed. I bid you farewell." With that, she disappeared in a very quick jump, jumping over to her house and jumping up the stairs.

"Did we just meet the Muratate of the village in a personal conversation?" Dark asked almost immediately.

"I think so, Dark. I think so." Sheik laughed.

"Anyway." Link laughed. "Don't you think it's about time we went home? Your parents must be worrying." He noted.

"Yes Link, we shall go. After all, your slave driver master must be worrying." Dark snickered sarcastically.

"Exactly why we gotta go." Link huffed amusedly, turning around. In a blur, he had already jumped atop one of the trees that lined the dirt path that led to the outskirts of the village. "Coming?" he called.

"Of course." The two boys disappeared and reappeared next to him.

Without even turning back, Link took a hold on the tree branch, and launched himself towards the next, again and again, soaring through the trees with his best friends following from behind.

Suddenly, he slowed down enough for them to get to his sides, then smirked.

"Hey, you guys, you never told me what the good news from this morning were." He laughed.

"Oh yeaaaah!" the two boys exclaimed in unison, then brought their fingers to their lips in thought. This comical scene made Link laugh and almost miss the next branch.

"Well, guess what."

"What?"

"Tomorrow..." Dark started.

"A ship with new supplies..." Sheik continued.

"Coming from Termina..." Dark cut him off, giving his competition a glare.

"Is scheduled to dock..." Sheik continued, throwing Dark a sideways glance.

"At the Ocean Pier..." Dark announced in a voice louder than necessary.

"Right next to our houses!" Sheik finished, growling at Dark for interrupting him so much.

"Alright, alright, you guys, I got it... Stop fighting." Link laughed as the path of trees ended, giving over an open plain. On one side, he could see his master's house, and on the other side, Dark's house, with the path that led to Sheik's house, that was located in the top middle. If a line was drawn between their houses, it'd make a triangle.

"Anyway, I'm taking the fork here." Dark turned away from Sheik, still bitter that he'd beaten him to the news.

"I'll come with you for half of the way there." Sheik rolled his eyes at Dark's childishness.

"Alright, hurry home boys, before your mommies get too worried." Link laughed. "Okay, Seeya tomorrow." He waved at them.

They waved back with a smile.

"Night Link!"

With that, the two boys jumped on a branch diagonal from them, and again and again, until they disappeared in the ocean of trees.

Bringing his eyes back to his course, Link took one last jump on the last branch and landed with a soft thump on the moist soil. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he soon began running towards his destination, the fairly large house with one lit window.

As his bare feet thudded on the still-wet ground of the field in which he passed so much time, he thought back at his day's events. Hopefully, he wouldn't have too much work tomorrow and could go see the boat dock when it arrived.

Such was the life of a Hylian, or anyone who had settled down in Hyrule. Nothing interesting ever happened. The only connections with Termina were the ships that came and went, transporting supplies and people back and forth.

Reaching the front door, he clumsily wiped his feet on the front mat before slowly opening the door, trying to make least noise as possible. Before completely opening the door, he peeked through with one eye, making sure the lit candle on the front table was all that was present in the otherwise dark hallway.

Once he made sure nothing, or no one else was there, he slowly crept inside, pushing himself against the wall on the other side of the candle, hiding in the shadows as he slowly walked towards his room. The loose boards under his feet creaked as he passed on them none-too-gently, eager to sneak into his room unnoticed. He winced as a particularly loud creak resounded as he stepped on a loose board he had made a mental note to fix, and stopped, listening for any movements.

None...

"KID! WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP AT THIS TIME OF THE NIGHT!?"

Link froze in his steps with a look on his face that mirrored the expression of a deer in front of a bunch of hunters.

"N-N-NOTHING! J-JUST GETTING A C-CUP OF WATER!" he stuttered out.

"IT'S LATE, JUST GET TO SLEEP, YOU GOT A LOT OF WORK TO DO TOMORROW!" the same gruff voice yelled from the top floor, making Link sweat profusely and nod in the air.

"S-SIR!" he screamed out again, and without waiting for anything else, jumped for the small door located under the stairs. Opening it, he practically dove inside and none-too-gently slammed the door behind him.

Once inside, he sighed and wiped his forehead. A misplaced smile crept upon his face, and he suddenly grinned.

"_Score: Link, 1, Cole, 0."_ He thought with a proud expression, forced to cut off his thoughts when a sudden drowsiness froze his body. "Alright..." he yawned, stretching in the darkness. "That's enough for today. Better get some sleep. With all the commotion that ship is gonna bring tomorrow..." he muttered sleepily, not caring less if tomorrow would be a hard day. "I'm just tired now..." closing his eyes, he blindly felt around, looking for his bedroll. Once his wandering hand found a soft surface not too far away from him, he smiled blindly and slid onto the bedroll.

With one last tired sigh and a content smile, he dropped his head on the bedroll and relaxed his tired muscles, sending a signal to his tired brain to start preparing for tomorrow's new challenges.

---

Rays of sunlight filtering from under the door that led to the small room under the staircase slowly extended further and further until they gently shone on a bundle in the corner of the room. As the sun got higher and higher up in the sky, the rays got longer and longer, until they made stripes on the boy cuddled up in the corner. Seeing as he wasn't awakening, the sun decided to send a couple of rays in his face, which seemed to make him react as he muttered something and frowned, eyebrows creased.

"Get off..." he muttered, turning around and away from the sun's rays.

That's when the sun must've gotten angry, because the door suddenly slammed open, sending a huge blast of light into the room, lighting up every single feature in it, from the small desk next to the door, to the bedroll in the corner. The boy in the corner suddenly shot up, gasping, surprised by the noise and the sudden burst of light.

"What...?" he complained softly, too tired to do anything else than rub his eyes.

"Kid, get up." Came the familiar voice of the young master of the house.

"What do you want, Byrne?" Link muttered distastefully, looking at the tall silhouette standing at the doorway.

As the sun's rays died down, satisfied that they'd woken the boy, Link slowly began to distinguish navy blue hair tied in a high ponytail, a pair of yellow eyes looking up at him over a green bandana he always covered his nose and mouth with. Under that, he was wearing a black shirt and navy blue pants. A sudden thought wandered around Link's tired brain: _"How the hell can he survive in such a heat with all those clothes???"_

"It's five in the morning. The ship is coming around six. Get to the dock immediately. My father prepared a list of all the merchandise destined to him. You need to take them and come back here. You CAN do that, can't you?" the boy from yesterday night raised a brow.

"Yes I can. Let me get ready." The blonde yawned and stretched tiredly, mumbling something under his breath before pushing himself up.

With a wobbly step, he grabbed a fresh pair of ankle-length light pants and the green t-shirt next to it. In the blink of an eye, he was already out of his old clothes and into his new ones. Ruffling his hair in an attempt to tidy them, he stretched and walked for Byrne, who was leaning against the doorway.

"So Byrne. How was college? You were gone for three whole years. I missed you. You left me with the old man for three years, you traitor." Link snickered, putting his hand in front of him.

Yellow eyes fixated on the younger boy in front of him, Byrne handed him a scroll.

"None of your business." He answered gruffly.

"Hope the college friends didn't get to you. Everyone here missed you." The blonde sarcastically smirked.

"I bet you missed me the MOST." Accenting his last word, Byrne suddenly swept a foot across Link's chest's level, aiming to hit him in an attempt to shut him up. Unfortunately for the navy-haired boy, Link was gone in a flash, reappearing behind him and outside his room, still yawning and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Now now, I know YOU missed ME, but now's not the time to reminisce the old days. I got a job to do, and you probably have some little girls to ambush, right?" Link snickered as he turned his back and walked towards the back door that wasn't far from the hallway he was in right now.

"Fuck off." Was the gruff reply that came before Byrne disappeared in a slight whooshing sound.

"Right." Link snickered as he opened the wooden sliding door that led outside. Taking a deep breath, he savoured the morning breeze that swept across the field, and suddenly grinned, welcoming the new day with open arms.

---

By the time he'd gotten to the docks, it was around five thirty in the morning. Some early birds were already there, impatient to greet the ship and get news from Termina. Link just felt like he wanted to go home and sleep some more, but obviously, that wasn't happening. The field needed a lot of work today, and the barn had a roof to be fixed. Plus with all the daily chores like milking the cows and feeding the chickens, Link doubted he'd get some sleep before nightfall.

"Well, might as well get some more shut-eye until the ship gets here. Just thirty minutes won't hurt." He yawned and tiredly eyed the trees behind him. Choosing a relatively large branch, he took a leap and landed on it quietly. Yawning, he stretched and sat down, leaning against the trunk with his legs on both sides of the branch. Crossing his arms, he found a comfortable position, and hung his head. It didn't take much effort to sink back into the sleep he needed so much.

---

He was woken by the sound of cheering and hollering. Not even bothering to open his eyes, he'd already guessed what was going on.

"Freakin boat, couldn't have gotten here a little later?" he sighed, opening his eyes and getting up on the branch.

From up there, he could see the docked ship and the cargo being transported down to land. He could also see the men getting down and greeting the people around them. Basically, the people were having the first bout of excitement they'd gotten for a LONG time.

"Guess I'd better go and get this over with." Clutching the scroll in his hand, he jumped down from the tree and landed on his feet, kicking up a slight cloud of dust as he did. Not in a big rush, he slowly walked for the captain of the cargo ship, who was giving orders to his men.

Once in front of him, he waited for the older man to finish screaming his orders, then coughed to get his attention.

"Sir, I'm here to collect the cargo destined to Sir Cole." He handed the bearded man the scroll. "I'm supposed to get everything on this scroll."

The man opened the scroll. To Link's dismay, it was longer than it seemed when it was rolled up. Once the bearded captain finished reading, he nodded to a man behind him and threw him the scroll.

"JACOPO! FIND THIS BATCH OF MERCHANDISE AND LEAD THE LAD TO IT." He screamed.

"SIR!" came the quickest reply Link had ever heard.

"Even I don't answer that fast to the old man." He muttered under his breath, going around and captain and walking on board the ship. The younger sailor smiled at Link, the read the scroll.

"I think I saw the batch somewhere around here. Call your friends, it's a pretty big pile of merchandise your master ordered from Termina." Jacopo thoughtfully looked around.

"Yeah, I figured." Link sighed.

"Ah, there it is." Jacopo smiled and led Link towards a pretty high pile of crates and bags. "This is all Sir Cole's. You might wanna get some help." He sighed.

"I'm here alone. I guess I'll just take all this on land and make a couple of 'come-and-go' trajectories." The blonde shrugged. _"What a drag..."_

"Or, he could always ask his best friends to help him carry everything back to his house."

"Right, there's that too." Link smiled, not turning around to meet the crimson-eyed glances that his best friends were throwing at him. "Thanks Jacopo. We'll take it from here." He thanked with a smile.

"No problem. Safe trip back home." He wished before walking off to help someone else.

"Right, so why are you guys here?" Link turned around and smirked at his friends.

"Came to get a part of the excitement." Dark shrugged.

"Yeah, life got so boring these few days, I'm almost suicidal. Came to get cheered up a bit." Sheik laughed.

"Ah... I see..." Link raised a brow. "So what's the real reason?"

"Had a couple of packages for my mom." Dark shrugged.

"Same for my dad." Sheik sighed.

"Kay, well, aren't you guys already burdened with your stuff?" the blonde inquired.

"Burdened is a harsh word." Dark laughed, swinging a small bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah..." Sheik shrugged, putting down a small toolbox.

"Alright..." Link gave a nervous laugh, then turned back to the pile. "Who's gonna take what now?" he chuckled sheepishly.

"I'll take the bags." Dark offered.

"I'll help with the crates." Sheik laughed.

"Alright..." Link grunted as he bent down and grabbed a crate. "Load me up please." He grinned.

The two boys shrugged and each grabbed one crate, putting it over the crate in Link's hands. Grunting in effort as his muscles strained to hold up all the crates, Link breathed harshly out of his nose.

"Hey, we're ready." Sheik grunted as Dark piled the rest of the crates in his hands, then took the bags.

"Great." Link grunted and gasped as he took a step forward. The wooden planks creaked under his feet as the three boys struggled to get down on land.

Once down, Link took a deep breath and started walking.

"I'm sorry-" he gasped for breath "-you have to carry all this for me." He threw a half-grin backwards towards his friends, who were calmly striding behind him.

"No problem. We can't get your spine all messed up just because of crates, now, can we?" Dark grinned.

"Right." Link scoffed.

"Now shut up and-" Sheik coughed. "-Keep walking!"

---

"We there yet?" Dark asked, putting his bags down and stretching his fingers for the fourth time since they exited the docks.

"Almost. Keep holding on!" Sheik half-grinned despite his aching muscles.

"Dammit." Link finally let out a cry of frustration and put his boxes down on the dirt path. Then, he plopped down and laid back. "Just a moment, kay?"

"Good idea…" the two boys simultaneously put their cargo down and imitated Link.

For a moment, all they could hear was the chirping of birds and the sound of the wind. Then, the sound of a carriage and a horse walking towards them floated to their ears. Too lazy to even check, they only waited for the sound to get closer before they opened their eyes to check.

"My my, what do we have here? A roadblock? Please don't tell me I need to get checked." An old, yet playful voice snickered.

"Nah, no roadblock here…" Link grunted as he pushed himself up and looked at the newcomer who was sitting atop a carriage, his horse's reins in his hands. "Just a couple of exhausted teens." He laughed.

"Well then, what kind of doctor would I be if I didn't help you guys out?" the middle-aged man laughed.

"We'd love it if you could give us a hand…" Dark practically begged, not even bothering to open his eyes and get up as he had already recognized the voice of the village's doctor and unofficial priest.

"Alrighty then, I wouldn't mind a couple of hitchhikers. Hop in, boys!" the man smiled.

Just as the sun died down a bit, Link finally saw the wrinkles around his smile and his brown eyes. A couple of faint wrinkles had already formed on his forehead too, visible because of his black hair being tied behind by a bandana. In the back, his long ebony hair was let down, reaching the middle of his back. He was wearing a traditional shaman outfit, long-sleeved and brown with many fringes of yellow, red and green cloth on it. His pants were also brown, bordered with white designs. Everything was made with a special cloth so that he would keep cool inside, and not suffer from the heat.

"Thanks a bunch, Renado. We owe you one." Link laughed, dragging his cargo to the back of the carriage and loading them up in it. Sheik and Dark also got up and helped Link load the simple wooden carriage with their stuff, then hopped in themselves. Once everyone was on, Renado flicked the reins, ordering his horse to start walking.

"So what're you boys doing here at this time of the day?" Renado asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Went to the docks to pick up some stuff that arrived for each of us." Dark replied.

"I see. Any good news coming from Termina?" Renado asked. "I didn't get the chance of going today as I was by the bedside of a child who has been sick for over a week now."

"Talo?" Sheik sighed, rubbing his temples when Renado nodded. "That kid… Always gets into all sorts of trouble."

"Any news…? I don't think so… I heard a rumour that the King decided to send in more female orphans to help populate Hyrule, but it's just a rumour…" Dark explained.

"Plus, it's Beth, the village gossip girl, who started it all. You never know if it's actually true or not." Link rolled his eyes as he leaned his back against the edge of the carriage.

"I see…" Renado nodded. "It's rare to find girls in the age of getting married and having kids here in Hyrule these days. Most of us are boys, or girls under the age of sixteen. And when new girls come here or reach the age to get married, it's always the old and rich aristocrats and the rich members of the middle class who get dibs." He snickered. "Not that I would wanna wife. I'm too old to get a wife." He sighed nostalgically. "A second wife anyway…"

"Ah… How many years has it been? Since Anjean died?" Dark asked, not trying to pry at all.

"About twenty… Ah, those were the good days…" Renado closed his eyes for a moment reminiscing. "But they're long past now. I think I'm happy taking care of the village kids all alone."

"Speaking of kids, how's your daughter? Last time I heard, she turned six years old last month!" Link grinned.

"Yeah, Luda? She's six now, and proud of it. If only she'd get over her shyness, she could go brag to someone else than me about it." He laughed.

"But Luda's your adoptive daughter, right? How bout your blood daughter? What's become of her?" Sheik asked.

"Rutela? She got married two years ago and went to live in Termina because her husband, Bo, was a village mayor in Termina, and had come to Hyrule on a summer vacation. Now, she's around twenty years old, and I haven't heard of her since her marriage." Renado sighed. "My little girl, already twenty and married…"

"Anyway…" Link rubbed his eyes tiredly. "All the talk about a new ship bringing Daughters of the King is just a rumour. With Beth spreading those rumours, you never know what's true or not." He shrugged.

"Right." Renado turned and smiled a them, nodding. "Now, where should I drop you boys off?"

---

Night... The only part of the day that is actually perfectly calm and soothing. The moonlight and the stars, they all gave off this peaceful reflection, a reflection that anyone could see next to their tired expression if they ever looked into a clear body of water.

On the other side of the river in which the moon reflected stood a house. Another house could be seen a bit farther away from it, and another house, towards the northeast of it.

If the moon would take a peek closer and lean its head into one of the windows, it'd see a small door that led to a small room under the main staircase. If somehow it sent its rays on the other side of that door, it'd land straight onto the body of a young teen.

Illuminated by the faint rays of the moon, Link blinked, trying to catch some sleep. Even if he was tired, his muscles were aching, and it kept him from getting any sleep.

"Damn..." he swore, turning around, looking for a more comfortable position.

Sighing, he raised his eyes towards the crack under his door, gazing emptily at the pale rays of the moonlight filtering into the house that were trying to get through his door and illuminate his pitch-black room.

Closing his eyes, he tried out a trick he'd learned at the academy, when he was still a young Sheikah in training. Closing his eyes, he made a complete blank in his mind, then drew a long, gentle breath. Instead of blowing it back out, though, he held his breath.

The first twenty seconds were easy to hold. After that, his lungs slowly started burning, becoming more intense by the second. Still relaxed as much as he could, the blonde felt his members numbing, and it became hard to move his hand. After the first minute, he finally felt darkness covering the rays of dim light that were bypassing his closed eyelids, and smiled. Good.

"_When the brain realizes that there is no more air flooding the lungs, it panics. It tries everything it can do to make you draw your breath again. So it'll knock you out so that you can't willingly hold your breath anymore, and will order your lungs to breathe. That's why you drown if you're in water or in a fire, and why you can't commit suicide just by holding your breath. This trick can be used at any time if you feel like you'll get insomnia, and you know you need your energy for the next day. Everyone got that down?"_

"_Yes Impa-sensei."_

"Thanks, Impa-sensei." Link smiled one more time before his brain reacted to the lack of oxygen and made him let out the breath he was holding just as he faded to black.

---

"Hey, what should we do today?" Sheik asked, leaning against the wooden fence that separated his parents' property and Link's employer's property.

"Don't know. I haven't gotten any orders from Cole yet, so I guess that means I'm free today." Link shrugged.

"How bout we go to the Village Behind the Waterfall. They have some great pools there, and it's damn hot today." Dark noted, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

"Sure. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to get there." Sheik noted.

"Alright, I would, but seems someone's here to give me a message." Link turned up to a tree not far away from them just as a familiar figure dropped down.

"The messenger is back I see. Way to ruin our day out." Dark sighed, glaring daggers at the long-haired boy who was advancing for them.

"What is it now, Byrne? What does your father want me to do today?" Link sighed, lifting some hair out of his eyes so that he could see the yellow ones peering into them.

"I don't know. He just told me he wants to see you in his office. And by the way." He turned to Dark and returned his dagger glare. "I never chose this job. You think I WANT to play messenger with a bunch of losers like you?"

"Maaaaybe. Cuz in secret, you love us." Sheik snickered.

"Shut up, kid." Byrne growled and promptly disappeared into a nearby shadow, jumping onto the tree afterwards and disappearing.

"Well, better go see what the old man wants. Sorry about your day out, you guys." Link apologized with a sigh.

"No problem. Just go see before the old man throws a tantrum." Sheik laughed.

"Sure." Link shrugged lazily. "You guys head to the village, see if there are any news worth hearing."

"Kay. Later." With that, the three boys jumped off, Sheik and Dark jumping on the tree above them, and Link disappearing into a nearby shadow and jumping from shadow to shadow until he reached his house.

---

_Knock knock._

"Come on in."

The door opened slowly with a creak as Link's bare feet thudded on the wooden planks of his employer's study.

"You called, Sir?" he asked, trying not to frown at the word 'sir'.

"Yes. I need you to do something for me. Run an errand. It won't be long, but try not to mess up." Link looked up from the wooden planks to meet a couple of black eyes peering deep into his icy blue ones. Orange hair covered his employer's head, cut short up to the nape of his neck. An orange moustache crossed his face, giving him an evil look when he grinned. Under his head, he was wearing a green dress shirt, and the rest of his clothes were concealed by the wooden desk he was leaning on.

"Sure." Link nodded.

"Let me inform you that this is not an errand just for me. It's been given as a task to me by our landlord, Ganondorf. You'd better not screw up, or I'll kick your ass, clear, boy?" Sir Cole glared at him sternly.

"Crystal, Sir." Link bowed his head lightly. "So what do I have to do?"

"Alright, listen up, cause I'm only gonna say this once." Cole got up, exposing his relatively small size and his plump body. "Our landlord, Ganondorf, who kindly gave us the property we now own upon our arrival in Hyrule, has secured himself a wife in Termina. It's a young girl around your age, and she is destined to marry our landlord." He started explaining.

Link turned away for a moment, biting his lip, pitying the poor girl who had to marry the evil man who was their landlord.

"So your job is to escort her to our lord's mansion, which is located north of here. You'll meet her when she arrives to our meeting point, and escort her, then come back and make a full report to me. Understood?" he asked.

"Yes Sir…" Link nodded understandingly, thrilled at the idea of seeing a girl his age. "So when will she be coming, and where will I meet her?"

"She'll be arriving at the Ocean Pier in a couple of hours. She'll be on a ship bringing Ladies of the King from Termina, one that no one was supposed to know about. So at least you will find her easily while the docks are still free of the crowd that will follow once the village gossip girl spreads the news." He sighed. "Anyway, don't be late, so get going already. You'll find her easily. The girl's name is Zelda."

---

Running out of the house, Link was panting heavily even if he had just started running. Ladies of the King? Coming here? In a couple of hours ONLY? THAT WAS AMAZING!

His momentum was so hard that when he opened the door to his master's property, he immediately slammed into his two best friends, sending all three of them tumbling to the ground.

"SHEIK! DARK! GUESS WHAT! GREAT NEWS!" Link grinned once he got up.

"SAME HERE!" the two boys screamed together.

They read the news in each other's eyes, and grinning, they took a giddy leap in the general direction of the ocean, running towards it like little girls.

"TO THE OCEAN PIER!"

*************

**Author's Notes:**

**EDIT: Lots of people wanted a disclaimer as well as a warning, so here it is xD**

**I DO NOT OWN LEGEND OF ZELDA NOR NARUTO, NOR ANY OTHER REFERENCE IN THIS STORY. AND PLEASE, DO NOT TRY THE BREATH HOLDING TRICK AT HOME EVEN IF IT'S MY PERSONAL REMEDY AGAINST INSOMNIA.**

**Well, that's the prologue, folks. Basically, I want all of you to understand the setting, where the story is taking place, the surroundings, and the people. If you have ANY questions at all, don't hesitate to ask! ^^**

**So Hyrule is a colony of Termina. It's like the New-France/France relationship.**

**Ladies/Daughters of the King are orphan girls who are at the age to marry. The King of Termina pays their voyage to Hyrule so that they can find a husband and help populate the colony. If there's a proper word for it in english, someone tell me, cuz as far as I know, I'm using the direct translation of "Filles du Roi" since my classes are in french.**

**And the names. Basically, Hyrule is a country that has many villages. A village can vary in size, the biggest ones are big like a city, but are still called villages. All of them have a pattern. They're all called: Village *insert nature trait here*.**

**Then, the last names and titles. _Mura _means village in japanese, and _tate _means shield. So the village leader is called the Muratate of the village. _Midori_ means green. I just ran out of names I could use. Midori, the village leader, is Vaati's and Saria's mom.**

**_Kage_ means shadow. _Akai _means red, and _kuroi_ means black. So Dark's and Sheik's full names are "Sheik Red-Shadow" and "Dark Black-Shadow". Those two are cousins from the same clan. If anyone's watched Naruto, they have the same relation as Neji Hyuga and Hinata Hyuga. They're from the same clan, but from different branches of the entire family. They're both settlers from Termina whilst Link is a native Hylian. **

**Also, Sheikahs are like shinobis, for anyone who's watched Naruto. They're like ninjas who are trained to help the people, though some of them use their power to cause chaos.**

**And cookie for anyone who can find a direct quote said by Link that was taken out directly from Naruto. Tell me who says it, and which quote it is =P**

**I also put three cameos from Spirit Tracks, the new Zelda for DS. It's an amazing game, so buy it, even if the train sounds weird to you. I finished the game, and the ending is SOOOO sweet! Even if it's sad a bit too. Aaaand.... THERE'S LOTS OF ZELINK IN IT! *squees* It's MUCH better than Phantom Hourglass =D Can anyone tell me who the 3 characters from Spirit Tracks were? =P**

**Anyway, thanks for reading you guys! I wanna check how many people are interested before continuing to write. The first chapter will come in a while, kay? Gotta give me time to write. Anyway... PLEASE REVIEW!!!**

**AND MERRY CHRISTMAS! (And just in case I don't get the next chapter before New Year,) MAY THIS BE THE START OF A GREAT NEW YEAR, AND A GREAT NEW STORY! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!**

**~LoZ4Life**


	2. Enter sexy females

**Author's Notes:**

**In life, there's this cute little thing called Writer's Block. All of us writers mock it. Yet, we don't laugh so hard when we get targeted by it.**

**Gimme a break, stop bitchin on me, important thing is, you got your chapter. As usual, I've got alibis. No motivation, too much anime, facebook, my grandma died (RIP GRANNY, I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!3 T3T), I had a spanish presentation (no comments) and I'm supposed to film a fucking boring scene from the book "Rumble Fish" by S.E. Hinton for an english project, and I WANTED A FIGHT SCENE AND GOT A BORING DIALOGUE THING O_______O**

**Anyway, after waiting for about 3 weeks, here ya go. Let's all hope the next chapter won't also take 3 weeks to come out. Enjoy if you can.**

*******************

By the time we got there, a bunch of people had already gathered on the docks, searching the horizon for the ship bringing all those lovely ladies from Termina. Goddesses, I can't wait.

"You think they'll be pretty like last time?" Dark mused out loud, obviously excited.

"I hope so..." Sheik muttered.

"I pity the girl who has to marry Ganondorf. What's her name...? Zelda?" I sighed, thinking of the unfortunate lady I was supposed to escort. Hopefully, she wouldn't be much of a pretty girl so I won't feel much regret leaving her at the hands of that evil looking guy.

"Now now, Link, no discriminating ladies. Girls are girls, no matter how they look." Dark scolded.

"Get out of my mind, Dark..." I growled, annoyed that my best friend could read me like an open book... literally!

"He's right, let's just hope some fancy ladies come down this time. Last time, none of them were actually appealing..." Sheik noted.

"That was two years ago Sheik." I muttered.

"Yeah. You didn't have taste back then." Dark added as all three of us started laughing, the blinding sun overhead seeming to laugh along with us.

---

My friends and I were sitting high up on a tree branch, pretty much cut up from the rest of the world when we heard cheering coming from below. Gasping, I jumped off and landed with a thud on a lower branch, Sheik and Dark following behind me. Holding on to a smaller branch, I leaned over to the side, scrutinizing the horizon for a ship. Wondering why there was cheering and no ship on the horizon, I kept wondering, my heart thudding a hundred miles an hour. It finally stopped thudding completely when I heard a voice screaming from down below.

"DROP THE ANCHOR!"

"It's here!" Sheik gasped, dropping below.

"Yo, wait for me!" Dark followed him, disappearing from my view.

Only I stood at the top, a slow breeze toying with my hair. Still looking towards the horizon, my eyes were frozen on the newborn sun. I suddenly felt like smiling for no reason at all, and in fact, I did smile. Everything was finally coming into place. After many years of boredom, we were finally got get a new jolt of excitement around here.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw a teenage girl running on the path leading to the village. Figures. Beth wouldn't waste a moment if she caught wind of any types of news.

"LINK! MOVE YOUR LAZY ASS! DUDE!"

"Hey, shut up, you shouldn't curse in front of the ladies!"

I laughed as I looked down and spotted my best friends who were half turned towards the ship, half turned towards me.

"Coming." I smiled one more time at the sun, then jumped down.

---

"Can you see them?" I whispered in Dark's ear, all three of us looking onto the deck, trying to spot any of the lovely ladies who were going to come out any time now.

"Wait, I think I can see someone." Sheik cut in, pointing at a moving form on the deck.

"You think it's a girl?" Dark asked.

"Could be..." I muttered.

The form suddenly jumped and disappeared. I twitched, immediately trying to spot her when she arrived on firm ground.

This lady had brownish-red hair. It was tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a dark olive green dress with a lot of details. Her brown eyes were twinkling as she smiled lightly. The reason you could tell her apart from everyone else was her... ENORMOUS bosoms. What. The. Hell.

"_PERVERT!"_ A scream suddenly echoed in my mind. I jumped lightly and covered my ears instinctively, as if that would help. I then turned and threw my smirking friends a death glare.

"Don't tell me you didn't think of it either."I grumbled.

"Can't say we didn't." Dark laughed, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree behind us.

"Alright ladies, time to get out here and show the world your smile." The lady suddenly screamed.

"I can feel her tsuyosa flaring..." Sheik closed his eyes and sighed out.

"Her WHAT?" Dark gaped.

"Didn't you listen at the academy?" I sighed and leaned back against a tree. "Tsuyosa is another way of saying chikara. Chikara is the name given to the energy that flows through all Sheikahs' veins, giving them the ability to cast their magic and do everything they do." I explained to my best friend.

"Yeah, I know what chikara means. I just didn't know what tsuyosa meant..." he grumbled, tightening his hold on his arms in that cross-arm position of his.

"Anyway, she has a strong aura of chikara radiating from all around her, I can feel it." Sheik muttered, eyes still closed.

"You always were the most sensitive one in our team. Detecting chikara in people is probably all you can do." Dark smirked.

"Well all you can do is long-distance combat with normal weapons and spells. I can also wield daggers and knives, cast defensive spells and pretty much kick your ass at this." Sheik huffed.

"Well with my balanced offensive spell-casting, close combat and long-range abilities, I'd kick both your asses any day." I smirked at them.

"Yeah, but you only got skills in each of those. I got LOTS of skills in long-range and weapons. And Sheik has LOTS of skills in chikara control." Dark shrugged.

"Yeah, but I have LOTS of skills, just like that." I laughed lightly.

"Hey, guys, shut up, I can see some girls starting to come out! Look!" Sheik nudged both of us, pointing in the direction of the wooden plank that linked the boat to the solid ground. A bunch of people were blocking the frontal view, which is why we Sheikahs almost immediately jumped a branch higher, just so we could see better.

First, a blond girl came down. A brunette followed. Then another blonde, and a black-haired girl. A brunette came afterwards, followed by a light brown-haired one. One by one, the girls came out. All three of us were scanning each and every one of them from afar, judging which ones were worth taking a look at up front, which ones weren't.

"Hey! Pretty redhead alert." Dark grinned, nudging us in the direction of a reddish orange-haired girl that stood out in the sea of colourful dresses as she wore a black dress with turquoise and orange designs on it.

"Pretty blonde." Sheik whistled lightly as I followed his gaze to meet a shy-looking blonde who was trying to hide behind all the girls that were flowing out of the boat, unsuccessfully, to add.

"I can't see any really eye-catching ones." I sighed desperately. Maybe I'm just doomed to spend my life alone?

"So which one will you be escorting to Ganon's place?" Dark asked excitedly, looking around for any other eye-catching girls.

"Don't know yet. Might as well get down and go ask that lady there which one is this Zelda person." I shrugged.

"With that entire crowd, you won't be able to. She's a Sheikah, obviously. Let's call her." Sheik suggested.

"Be my guest." I sighed, shrugging.

Sheik closed his eyes for a moment, putting his hands up in front of his face and forming a square with his fingers. Dark and I watched idly as he concentrated, gathered his tsuyosa and…

"Mind wave, activate." He called out, opening his eyes. For just a moment, I felt a large amount of chikara being thrown out of him, then it all stabilized. All three of us then peered down from our perch to see if the lady had gotten the message.

The middle-aged lady who was obviously in charge suddenly stopped listening to the man who was talking to her and froze. All three of us grinned.

She suddenly bowed in respect, then jumped, disappearing in midair.

All three of us stood baffled, wondering where she went, when suddenly, someone tapped me on my shoulder.

Jumping in surprise, I jumped on a nearby branch and whipped around, holding my hands ready in offensive position.

"No worries, kiddoes. I'm not gonna hurt you." The newcomer snickered, advancing into the sunlight.

"Oh, it's you, lady." Dark muttered, looking at the average-height lady who landed behind us.

"How'd you move that fast?" Sheik gasped, baffled.

"I've had more training than you kids. Went to Sheikah college and university, and also taught at the academy for a year. I'm a pretty good Sheikah, if you ask me." The brunette lady grinned.

"Anyway." I sighed, dropping my guard. "We were sent here on a mission, and were hoping you could help us." I started explaining.

"Shoot." The lady nodded.

"We're here to escort a girl named Zelda. Would you know where she is?" I asked.

The lady's eyes became more serious as she frowned.

"That girl… She never came out of the ship…" she sighed, shaking her head. "Too stubborn and shy for her own good. I tried to get her to make some friends during the one-month ride here, but to no avail. A couple of girls tried getting close and only got halfway there. She's probably curled up somewhere, hiding in a dark corner behind some barrels or something." She growled in annoyance. "That girl…"

I turned to Sheik and Dark, biting my lower lip. _"If she's that shy, getting married to that freak Ganondorf will destroy her completely. What should we do?"_ I thought, throwing Sheik a mental message.

"Who's this Ganondorf?" the woman asked us casually, looking at her nails.

"AH!" all three of us gave a collective gasp, sweating. "How'd you do that!? That message was intended for Sheik only!" I gaped, amazed at the level of this woman's skills.

"Training, kid. So who is he?"

"W-well… He's our landlord, a-and we're supposed to come escort his future bride to his mansion…" I stammered, blushing.

"Well, poor girl is gonna have to get used to the change." The lady sighed. "Better go get her." She shrugged. "By the way…" she threw me a death glare, under which I shrunk, wondering what I'd done wrong.

"Y-yes?" I stammered out, scared.

"My mind-reading range is also ENORMOUS." She rolled her eyes, smirking as I froze and fell over like a plank of wood, sweating profusely, scared. Even Sheik and Dark were nervous. Bet they were both wondering how the hell she caught our thoughts at a huge distance like before.

"W-who are you?" I gasped, trying to get up.

"Name's Telma, kid." She smirked, looking down at me. "My customers know me as Telma the Bartender… But Sheikahs know me as Telma of the Sea, medical Sheikah of the Legendary Three." She smirked and jumped down from the branch.

We just stood there, gaping, looking at where she'd jumped down from.

"We just met one of the Three Legendary Sheikahs of Hyrule." Dark stated once we snapped out of our trance.

"Yeah…" I blinked, getting up and looking towards the ship. "I know…"

---

A bit later, we jumped down from our perch and approached the ship. I personally, should be getting home soon, as I've got other things to do than run around trying to find a little girl, like milk a couple of cows, feed the ducks, collect eggs, bring food to the pigs, water the field, plough the-

"Hey boys." I suddenly heard Telma's voice breaking through the crowd's incessant chattering. All three of us turned to her, surprised to find her warmly smiling.

"Where's the girl?" Dark asked curiously, looking around.

"Right…" she grunted, putting her hands around her back and pulling something out of behind her. "Here…"

I realized that what she had pulled out from behind her was actually a person. A very shy person, actually, since all I could see was a simple pale blue and white dress almost melting into Telma's brown dress. Excluding the shining blond hair that cascaded down the blue and white dress and a bit over Telma's dress.

"Alright love, stop sticking to me, you're a lady." Telma sighed, rolling her eyes, gently trying to pry the girl's hands off of her.

Sheik, Dark and I stood watching in an uncomfortable silence, wondering why the girl was so shy.

"BUT TELMA!" a crystalline voice suddenly came from the bundle of blue, yellow and white. "I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!" these simple words that were pronounced in some kind of a desperate plea wrenched my heart right out of its place and sent it for a ride all around my chest. I felt like puking. I hadn't even seen the girl's face, and I already regretted the fact that I had to personally had to deliver such a delicate flower into our landlord's big, rough fingers.

"Sweetheart, you're a grown woman now, this is not what the sisters taught you at the orphanage…" Telma sighed, gently pushing and pulling the girl towards the front. "I'm sure Sister Medli wouldn't have liked it if she saw that all the love and hard work she gave to educate you went to waste…" she caressed her hair and smiled. "Now straighten up and act like a lady should act in front of men." She encouraged.

"Right…" the girl sniffled, and turned around, keeping her head bowed, also keeping us from seeing her face. "I'm really sorry, please forgive me, Sirs." She bowed her entire torso, making some of that blond hair of hers flow down her shoulders and hang limply in the air.

Dark, Sheik and I searched for each others' eyes, nervous on what to do. I finally bit my lip and stepped in front of all of us, putting my hand down for her to take.

"Oh come on, we're not THAT old, even less worthy of that title." I smiled at her comfortingly. "It's okay, stand up and tell us your name." I cocked my head, waiting for her to take my hand.

The girl… no, Zelda, slowly started rising. Once completely up, she finally lifted her head, and blue met purple. I gasped, for a moment forgetting everything, the world becoming purple as I lost myself in those gentle deep violet eyes. Purple eyes… how pretty… and rare as well… this exquisite beauty, purple and yellow, complimentary colours matched with a beautiful mix of blue and white, this picture was perfect. An angel stood in front of me, looking at me with shy curiosity. I slowly snapped out of my trance to look at Zelda's face in general.

"So Zelda… right?" I asked. She nodded without a word, still eyeing me curiously and tense. She made a small move to move closer to Telma, but, with her trained eyes, the older woman saw the slight movement and pushed the girl a bit harder than expected, making her stumble even closer to me. I blushed as she gasped and looked up. Now that we were even closer, I could see her true height. She wasn't tall at all, she was normal sized, about a few inches smaller than me. As for her weight, I made a quick glance to her waist, and found it to be dangerously thin. This girl must have been through a lot.

"I'm Link." I voluntarily twitched my hand so that she could see it in its extended position. "Link Gaiden." I smiled.

The girl looked at me again, blushing harder, then turned to Telma, who smiled encouragingly at her. Then, she looked between Dark and Sheik who were smiling behind me. And then she turned to me. Her gentle purple eyes slowly scanned mine, trying to discover my personality. Sorry to pop your bubble love, but only Sheikahs can read. I have so much to hide and show, that no one can read my eyes. A lot of them have tried, none succeeded.

"Alright, I have to leave. If you boys are ever in Central, come around and visit my bar, it won't be hard to find." Telma invited.

"Kay. Bye Telma." I waved at her.

"Bye Link, Sheik, Dark. Bye Zelda. Good luck, my children." With that, the middle-aged Sheikah disappeared in a quick jump.

"Alright…" the girl finally blushed and shied away, biting her finger. "I'm Zelda." She looked up again, yet this time…. She was smiling? "Zelda Harkinian."

"Nice to meet you, Zelda."

I smiled and felt a light blush overcoming my face as I finally felt something warm slipping into my hand.

---

"So is this all your luggage, Zelda?" I asked, picking up a pretty small bag full of possessions and swinging it over my shoulder.

"Yes…" she whispered shyly. "Thank you."

"No problem. We're supposed to escort you after all." I whispered and blushed, trying to hide my regret under a mask of all-smiles. Poor girl. She barely got used to us three, how the hell would she survive against Ganondorf?

"Thanks…" she whispered again.

"Now, anything else you need to do here before going off to your new home?" Sheik interrupted. "It's getting late in the afternoon, Link, and you still have work to do." He noted.

"Right…" I sighed desperately. "Work…"

"I'm sure you'll be alright. You're a strong man, nothing can beat you." Zelda giggled.

I laughed at her comment, then turned to the guys. "Anything else to do here?"

"Don't think so-"

"WAIT!" Zelda suddenly gasped, looking around frantically.

"What is it?" I asked, nervous. "Is something wrong?"

"YES!" she gasped. "I FORGOT TO BID FAREWELL TO MY FRIENDS!"

"That's no problem."I calmed down. "We'll find your friends."

"They should be somewhere in there…" she turned around and pointed at the docks, where a mass of girls were present. "That's the place where all the girls who weren't escorted away should be staying. They'll later be taken to a small country house where they'll live until they get a husband chosen for them." She informed us.

"Kay, well, let's go see if your friends are there before they leave, kay?" I suggested.

"Yes." She nodded fervently and turned around, running towards the girls. I sighed in amusement and followed behind her, Sheik and Dark laughing lightly as they followed me.

---

"Didja find your friends?" I asked once I caught up with Zelda. She was panting as she surveyed the crowd of girls who were chit-chattering.

"No…" she sighed desperately.

"That's okay, we'll find them together." I encouraged her.

Colour seemed to return to her face as she smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

We kept searching for a while until a scream tore through the chatting girls' voices.

"ZELDA!"

All four of us whipped around to see the newcomers as they barely stopped in time to avoid us, instead jumping on Zelda and hugging her.

"Dear Din, Zelda, we thought we'd lost you!"

"Yeah, Zel, we thought you were already gone!"

"I'd never leave without saying goodbye first…" Zelda smiled and she hugged them tightly, then turned them around to let us see them. Behind me, I felt Dark's and Sheik's breaths hitch as they recognized the girls we were spying on before. "Alright you guys. Meet my escorts, Link, Sheik, and Dark." She pointed at each of us respectively as we bowed in respect for the ladies.

"Hello. Name's Midna." The orange-haired girl bowed lightly, curtsying with her black and turquoise dress in her hands.

"Tetra." The other blonde bowed, curtsying with her blue and red dress at her fingertips.

"Nice to meet you girls." I smiled, then turned around to see Dark and Sheik frozen. "Hey… You guys?" I cocked my head in surprise. "Wake up, you two…" I moved my hands in front of their eyes as they violently snapped back to reality and smirked at the same time.

"So… You ladies got any escorts waiting for you?" Dark asked mischievously.

"No…" Tetra sighed shyly. "We're both orphans… Our parents died when we were young and we were taken in by a Terminean orphanage… There we met Zelda and became friends… But asides her, we don't have any contacts…" she dramatically sighed.

"Yeah, we don't know anyone. The only reason why we came here was in the hopes of finding a good husband and being able to settle down and live a comfortable life, as opposed to Termina, where our only options were becoming nuns or living in the streets…" Midna sobbed a fake tear.

"Like half of the girls present here today…" the two girls raised themselves on one leg and stood side-by-side, raising one hand to the air. "WE ARE PENNILESS AND DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO GO!" they exclaimed together.

I chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of my head with a grin, amused by their obviously fake antic.

"I think we'll like these girls, right Dark? Sheik?" I chuckled and turned to the spot where my friends once were.

Blinking in stupor, I slowly turned around and blushed in embarrassment when I saw Dark glomping Midna's leg and sniffling like a little girl while Sheik squeezed the life out of Tetra.

"OH, GODDESSES, WHAT TRAGIC LIVES YOU TWO MUST HAVE HAD!" my best friends sobbed out at the same time. I took a step back, realizing their sobbing was real.

"Uhh, Sheik? Dark?" I called, even more embarrassed as Midna, Tetra and Zelda threw me looks that said 'the hell are these clowns supposed to be?'

"I know!" Sheik suddenly let Tetra go, whom immediately started gasping for air.

"YES, GREAT IDEA, SHEIK!" Dark let Midna go and rushed to Sheik's side. The two of them grinned at each other, then turned to the stupefied girls.

"Midna…" Dark suddenly fell to his knees before the orange-haired girl. "I admit I was spying from above when you came off the ship, and through all that crowd, had eyes for only you. Now I stand here in front of you as a perfect stranger, and ask your company at my house. I might not be your relative or anything, but I'm a man, and I've got power. I'll do everything in my power to protect you, and take care of you as long as you stay mine." He said in a sing-song voice.

All six of us stood silent for a moment, the wind blowing through our hair, making whistles that obstructed the otherwise-silent atmosphere.

Finally, the girls started laughing. And laughing. And laughing, and laughing and laughing, without any intention to stop.

Looking hurt, Dark got up and turned around, walking back to me with a depressed face. I could even see the hint of tears appearing on the sides of his eyes, and I sighed, sad for the poor guy. Rejection is not something easy to cope with.

"WAIT!" Midna suddenly cried out from the laughter.

Dark turned around immediately and cocked his head to the side, newfound hope glinting in his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"I'll come home with you!" she laughed. "You're such a funny guy, and it's not like I have anywhere else to go, might as well get to know you better!" she giggled, taking a small leap to his side and putting one of her pale hands on my best friend's shoulder.

"Really?" Dark gasped in surprise.

"Really." Midna smiled in content and suddenly invited herself into the comfort of Dark's chest, cuddling on his black shirt.

Even if the sun wasn't at full intensity yet as it shone above us, Dark seemed to redden considerably, and froze.

"_This is the part where you hug her, asshole."_ I heard a telepathic communication going from Sheik to Dark hovering in my mind and chuckled.

"R-right…" Dark stuttered out loud and mechanically brought his arms up, circling Midna's seemingly-fragile body lying safely in the sanctuary of his arms.

"But what am I gonna do…?" Tetra suddenly piped in shyly. "Zelda's gonna go with Link here…" she pointed at me. "And Midna's got Dark…" she pointed at the hugging couple. "WHERE AM I GONNA GO?" her eyes watered up with real tears this time, and she was on the verge of crying.

"That's okay, you can come home with me!" Sheik enthusiastically stated.

"R-Really?" Tetra sniffled, wiping the tears out of her eyes. "I can?" her eyes were full of hope as she said that, looking at Sheik in uncertainty.

"Of course you can. You're so cute, my parents would never refuse having you around!" my blond friend laughed.

"Yeah, speaking of your parents… won't they mind you having girls over? Where will you let them sleep? Do you have enough to feed them? Enough money for their needs? Enough time and dedication for their daily lives?" I asked, concerned.

"That's okay. My parents have plenty of money." Dark stated.

"Same here." Sheik nodded along.

"And as for food, it's never been a problem. Plus, we've got crop fields behind our house and a farm next to it." Dark explained.

"Us too." Sheik nodded again.

"Oh, I've always wanted to work on a farm!" Tetra gasped in amazement. "Do you have cows?" she asked.

"Sure do." Sheik grinned proudly.

"Woooow…." Tetra looked up at the sky, amazed.

"As for daily needs, we're in charge of them now, and we don't have much to do every day, so it'll be okay." Sheik shrugged.

"As for sleeping, Midna can sleep in my bed!" Dark enthusiastically stated.

The wind suddenly stopped blowing, a lone bird flying from above as everyone reddened, and not because of the sun.

"Eeeehm…" Midna blushed intensely as Dark realized what he'd said.

"I-I mean… w-without me IN IT, of course…" he suddenly let Midna go as the hugging couple broke up and gave each other their backs, crossing their arms and sweating.

Zelda suddenly started laughing, followed by Tetra and I. Sheik also followed after that.

The young couple suddenly smirked and turned around slightly, just enough to see each other's turned heads. And they too started laughing along with us as the sun finally hit its checkpoint halfway across the sky, sending a blinding ray of sun our way and blurring the view.

---

"Hey Zelda." I sighed as we walked on the dirt road leading to our houses.

"Yes Link?" she answered quietly.

"Why are you girls called Ladies of the King anyway? I mean, why the King? Why not just Ladies or something?" I asked, curious. True, out of the seventeen years where I'd been raised here, I've always wondered the answer to that question.

"Well, we're called Ladies of the King, or Daughters of the King, because we're all penniless orphans who lived in convents or orphanages. Since the king of Termina is set out to populate Hyrule and make it his colony, every couple of years, he decides to send women to Hyrule, so that they can help populate the colony. But he can't find any eligible women who'd want to go there on their own accord, so he turns to us. We're poor, family-less, and have no future. He pays out trip across the ocean to get here, where he gives us a chance to live our lives if we meet his single requirement: to get married as soon as possible and have many kids that we'll raise until their maturity." She explained with a smile as she kept her eyes on the road.

"Does the King send only women?" I asked curiously. "Because even if the colony is cruelly in a lack of females, nothing will happen if there are only girls here. Where do the men come from?"

"There are two things the King thought of. First of all, he sent some of his troops here in order to defend the colony. At the end of their service, they're all given the choice to stay here, or go back to Termina. A bit less than the half of them stayed here and started a new life, whilst the others, most of which were already married, went back to Termina, to their families." She explained in her usual quiet voice.

"And the second solution?"

"People who had no jobs in Termina were sent here to work under landlords and rich people like that. They had a three-year contract in which the landlord promised to bed him, feed him and give him a small salary if he did all the work given to him. At the end of the three years, the worker could go back to Termina or stay and work for the master, or leave and make his own life. All the expenses were paid by the hiring landlord, under orders from the King." She finished.

"You're smart…" Dark desperately whined.

"I have a question for you, Link…" Tetra blushed as she turned to me.

"Shoot." I smiled.

"How come everyone here leads an easy life? I mean, how come no one is poor, no is sick or hungry, and everyone has their own property?" she asked, looking around at the beautiful environment.

"Well, since not many people wanted to leave the comfort of their lives in Termina to come here, the King made a very effective system. He encouraged all the people who didn't have much in Termina to come here by giving large pieces of land to landlords. Those landlords cut their land into equal-sized pieces that were given free of charge to the settlers upon their arrival in Hyrule. This way, it promises people that they'll have a property and a land to work on if they come here, and that attracted many thousands of people." I explained.

"And are there natives here?" Midna asked.

"YES." Dark and Sheik laughed at the same moment as I rolled my eyes.

"Have you seen one before?" Zelda gasped.

"People in Termina say they're primitive and hairy and ugly!" Midna commented.

"They say they also wear wolf pelts and sleep on bear skins…" Tetra said, lost in a fantasy only she knew of.

"So? Is it all true?" Midna asked curiously.

I stayed silent for a moment, wondering what I should reply. I wasn't ugly and hairy, not that I knew of, but hey, better humour them while they start apologizing.

"Well, some clans who live high up on the mountains don't have any other choice than to hunt wolves and use their pelts as clothes, since it's always so cold. However, most of the native Hylian clans live in lower terrain, where it's warmer, so clans like mine have no need for wolf fur-based clothes." I smiled and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "At least, HAD, anyway…" I sighed to myself.

The girls suddenly froze in their steps as we guys stopped to look at them. All three of them were sweating profusely.

"What's wrong, too hot for you?" Sheik asked, concerned.

"You're a native?" Zelda finally stammered out.

"Sure am." I grinned proudly.

"OH MY GODDESSES!" the three girls exclaimed at the same time. "WE'RE SO SORRY, LINK, WE DIDN'T KNOW!" they proceeded to bowing again and again until they looked dizzy enough to me.

"I figured, since I don't really look hairy and ugly. Figured you must have gotten something wrong." I laughed, steadying them as they swayed around.

"So why are you here then? I heard Hylian clans stayed away from Terminean settlers, except for trading animal pelts." Midna asked indirectly.

"Long story…" I sighed in a half-smile, half-frown. "To make it short, well, my clan was one of the first who decided to settle down in a Terminean settlement. Unfortunately, some other native clans were against that and soon after attacked that village. My entire clan was massacred. I was the only one who survived. A Terminean survivor saved me from there and brought me here. And I grew up under many hands, and now I'm living with my employer, Sir Cole." I explained.

"Oh…" the three girls looked away, looking somewhat ashamed. "Sorry…"

"No problem, I didn't know anyone all that well anyway. Might have been about four, maybe five months old when it happened." I shrugged with a small grin.

"Hey, you guys, look!" Dark suddenly pointed at the horizon.

"What?" I asked.

"There they are! Your new homes!' my ebony-haired friend chuckled as the girls looked at the building in the middle of the field.

"Whose house is that?" Tetra asked.

"That's Dark's." Sheik answered. "Ours is that way, across from Dark's property." He pointed in Dark's house's general direction.

I suddenly felt something grabbing the hem or my shirt nervously. I looked down questioningly to see it to be Zelda's hand. She looked up at me with scared, desperate, pleading eyes. I laughed at her expression.

"No worries, we live over there." I pointed a bit farther away than Dark's house. "We three are neighbours, which is good for you, since you won't have to be separated. How lucky you are." I joked.

"Thank you…" Zelda sighed out in relief.

"So Zelda, one last question." Sheik piped in.

"Yes?"

"How did you come to know Ganondorf anyway? And how'd you ever get promised to him?" he asked.

Zelda's expression suddenly deepened, and she sighed.

"Ganondorf is my dad's friend's cousin. I was born, and even before I took my first breath, I was promised to him. He was already old at that time. The first time I saw him, I was five. He looked around twenty to me. He had come to see how I was growing. Then, one day, the plague swept in and carried my parents away. I was infected as well, but Ganondorf appeared out of nowhere and paid for my treatments. He then told me he'd done it so that I'd be indebted to him and marry him one day." She sighed.

We respected her silence as she gathered her memories and started again.

"After that, I was left orphaned. I lived at the orphanage for about ten, eleven years, where I backed away from everyone. I was always down for some reason, and couldn't find a way to cheer up. One day, they brought in two girls who had been orphaned in a fire. That's when I first smiled in a long time, and Tetra and Midna became my best friends. At sixteen, I received a letter saying Ganondorf wished to wed me in a year, when I'll be sent to Hyrule as a Lady of the King. When we were asked to go, Midna and Tetra also came along as I told them I was going to find a new life. And I ended up here." She finished wit a silent tear sliding down her cheek.

"Oh…" I felt dumb just saying that, but I didn't know what else to say. "I'm sorry. Must have been rough for you." I muttered.

"Yeah, thanks…" she sighed back as Midna and Tetra jumped and hugged her.

"YOU NEVER TOLD US THAT!" the two girls cried out. "If you'd told us, we could have helped, someway or another!"

"Nah, it's fine." She shrugged them off with a smile.

That smile… I'd seen it somewhere before.

It hit me. That smile… it was the same as mine. Mesmerized by it, I stared at her as she tried pushing her best friends off. Unconsciously, I spoke up.

"Your smile… it's just like mine…" I muttered out subconsciously.

We stopped and looked up at me, gasping. "What?"

"Nothing." I shook my head and flashed a genuine smile. "Alright, piggy-back race. Let's see which couple gets to Dark's house first!" I suggested.

"I'M GAME!" my blonde and black-haired friends exclaimed.

"PERVERTS!" Zelda's orange-haired and blonde friend screamed amusedly.

"You in?" I asked, looking at Zelda questioningly.

She looked indecisive for a moment, then shook her head and smiled.

"Bring it on." She grinned.

"Cool! Alright, girls, get on!" us three got down on our knees as the girls amusedly climbed on our backs. I felt my cheeks redden as Zelda hesitantly put her leg around my waist.

"Hold on really tightly, alright?" Dark grinned deviously.

"Yeah, you're in over your heads, girls." Sheik copied his wolfish grin.

"What?" the three girls asked simultaneously, making us chuckle.

"Alright guys, this race'll be done Sheikah style! On three!" I laughed, taking a good foothold on the ground, ready to leap.

"Sheikah style?!" three screeching voices sounded over our countdown, soon drowned out by the 'GO!' and the screams that followed as we started the race.

---

"I WON!" Dark laughed as he touched his house's walls with a triumphant grin.

"That's because Zelda wouldn't stop screaming in my ear." I laughed, looking back to turn at the panting girl I was carrying on my back.

"I feel faint…" Tetra swooned around then dropped on Sheik's back, unconscious.

"Oops…" Sheik muttered guiltily. "Well, she can't say she didn't like it." He laughed.

Midna and Dark laughed as well.

"I enjoyed the ride, that was AWESOME!" the orange-haired girl laughed. "Dark and I make a great team!" she high fived her new companion.

"Hey you guys, you never told us you were Sheikahs!" Zelda piped up.

"Oh, we didn't?" I laughed.

"You've seen Sheikahs before?" Sheik asked, gently taking Tetra off his back and taking her in his arms.

"Lady Telma was one, I remember…" Midna answered in her place.

"Yeah, Lady Telma is one of the three Legendary Sheikahs of Hyrule. They're a group of three master Sheikahs who know everything, but they were rumoured to have quieted down. Two of them disappeared, while the third one, Telma, settled down for a normal life." I explained.

"Wow…" the two conscious ladies whistled.

"That's it?" I asked.

"No… There are a few Sheikahs in Termina. They came from Hyrule, and some are staying while others will return." Midna noted.

"Alright, you guys. It's getting late in the afternoon, we didn't have lunch, and Link has work to do. Maybe we should part for today?"Sheik suggested. "Plus, I gotta work on reanimating Tetra." He laughed.

"Alright." I sighed. "I gotta take Zelda to Ganondorf's mansion, and then I'll probably be working until midnight if I wanna finish…" I sighed.

"That much?" Zelda asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, welcome to a Hylian man's life." Dark laughed.

"Alright, I'm gonna leave. Good day, you guys." Sheik bowed his head once, then jumped off, carrying Tetra with him.

"Me too." I half-smiled at Dark. "Seeya later, man." I waved.

"Bye."

"Bye Midna. Seeya soon, I hope." Zelda called out gently.

"Later, Zel."

With that, I lightly bowed my head to Dark, and jumped off, feeling Zelda's fingers crisp around my shirt, holding on for dear life.

---

I stopped next to Cole's house to catch my breath more than anything, since carrying a girl around in Sheikah transportation methods took a toll on my body. I'd probably fall asleep in the middle of the field before even finishing the work tonight.

I was about to jump off again when Zelda tapped my shoulder. I turned around and threw her a quizzical look.

"Can I walk a bit? My legs hurt…" she muttered shyly.

"Sure." I gently put her down and watched as she smoothed her dress and walked around a bit. I only froze when I heard a disturbance, and in a swift move, pulled Zelda behind me in a protective move that surprised even myself.

"Show yourself." I called out as a shadow rose from the ground and took the shape of someone I knew well. I immediately dropped my guard, yet that didn't keep Zelda clutching onto my shirt like it was her life.

"What is it, Byrne?" I asked, looking at my employer's son who just looked back down at me.

"My father sent me to give you a message." He grunted.

"Again?" I snickered sarcastically.

"Shut up." He rolled his eyes. "He says Ganondorf has just left the country on an urgent meeting and will be back in a couple of months."

I felt my heart skip a beat at that, and felt Zelda's grip tighten even more on my shirt.

"So until he gets back, Lady Zelda will be a guest at our house." He muttered the last part out distastefully.

"Kay, cool, thanks for the news. Bye." I waved him off.

"Stop mocking me like that!" he yelled before he disappeared in a shadow mass.

"Sorry about that." I muttered, turning around and encouraging Zelda to let go of me.

"Who is he?" she asked quietly.

"My employer's son. You'll be living in the same house as him for the next two months. Good thing is, he's almost never home, so no worries about meeting him face to face." I laughed. "Now, I'm hungry. Wanna eat lunch?"

---

After lunch, Cole showed Zelda around, and showed her to her room. It was a huge room with wooden walls and floor. It had a simple, yet also elegant bed in the middle, with a drawer, and a bunch of other furniture around. Her window gave a view over the field in which I worked.

And in which I was currently working.

Wiping some sweat off my forehead, I looked up at the dying sun. Already evening? Sheesh, I just started with the fields!

"Guess there's no point in arguing." I muttered.

Zelda was now moving in. Cole later wanted to discuss the details of her marriage with Ganondorf with her. I tried to stop him, seeing as it was a sensitive subject for her, but only got bitch-slapped by my employer instead.

"Stupid old man…" I muttered under my breath, bending down to pull some weeds out.

My day went on like that. By the time I finished working, it was night already. I couldn't tell what time it was because my eyelids were already drooping.

"Link!"

A whisper suddenly crossed the night sky and reached my ears.

"Huh?" I asked, stretching tiredly.

"Hey, come on, you dummy, stop working! Come on here!" I finally pinpointed the source of the noise, identifying it as Zelda, who was waving from her window.

"Kay." I shrugged, then jumped a couple of times, reappearing on her windowsill in a moment's time.

"What are you doing up so late?" she asked. "You look destroyed inside out."

"Working. Can't go to sleep before finishing." I shrugged.

"You're too hard on yourself. She rolled her eyes and reached around, bringing a cup of orange juice in front of me. "Here, I swiped you some from the kitchen while you were working." She giggled sweetly.

"Thank you." I nodded as a thanks, gratefully gulping down the orange contents of the cup.

"No problem…" she took my cup when I finished, then came to sit next to me on the windowsill. I moved over to let her come next to me as both of us sat down next to each other, feet hanging off the edge, looking at the moon together.

"Zelda?" I suddenly asked, breaking the calm silence around us.

"What is it, Link?" she turned to me with a smile.

"I'd…" I blushed, realizing what my mind was telling me to say. "I'd love to have you around during the day… Dark and Sheik usually come along to help me with my work, or to goof around, and they'll probably bring Midna and Tetra as well. When I'm done, we usually all go down to the Village in the Blades of Grass, which is about an hour's walk from here, and we spend the day there." I blushed harder. "I was wondering if tomorrow night, you'd like to go alone with me, so I can, you know, introduce you to everyone, and stuff…" I muttered the last part, embarrassed.

She stayed silent for a moment, turning her beautiful violet eyes to the moon, then looking back at me.

"I'd love to." She nodded with a gentle smile.

"Great." I turned away, blushing.

Another lapse of silence came between us before it was her turn to talk.

"Link?"

"Hmm?"

"Earlier, you aid my smile was like yours…" she whispered, not even looking at me as I turned to throw her a surprised glance.

"So?"

"What…" she then looked at me, eyes wide with curiosity and pain. "What did you mean by that?"

I clicked my tongue, trying to come up with a decent response, but the words just wouldn't form in my head.

"I can't explain…" I sighed out. "You and I… we have the same eyes, the same smile. Eyes that glint with a pained past, a fake smile that helps us out of all situations…" I shrugged. "You and I, we're wearing the same mask…"

"Wha-"

"I can't talk anymore. If I don't get to sleep soon, Cole will have questions." I suddenly took her hand in mine, and smiled. Then, gently, very slowly, I raised her hand and lowered my face, very gently kissing the back of her pale hand.

Even if my lips just brushed her hand, I felt red in the face, and decided to retreat for now.

"Good night, my lady."

With that, I took a jump off of her windowsill, disappearing in the bushes below as she desperately watched me disappear from above.

***********

**Author's Note: **

**Disappointing, I know, contrarily to what I said in the top A/N's, you have every right to bitch on me. I don't mind, I deserve it.**

**Chikara and tsuyosa are the same thing. They both mean "energy/power/strength" in japanese. For Naruto freaks like me, they're the equivalent of chakra in shinobis. For non-Naruto freaks, they're something like a Sheikah's magic's fuel.**

**Well, obviously, no one proofread this =D Since there are probably a lot of typoes and st00pid mistakes. Signal them to me pl0x.**

**You might have noticed I changed the summary (there's a SMALL CHNACE that you MIGHT HAVE xDDD). This one is much cooler, right? =DD Ironically, I thought it up during history class, when my teach was blabbering about "Le traité de Paris, la Guerre de la Conquête, et la dualité du Québec moderne." You didn't need to understand that, and if you did, sorry for frying your brain.**

**Bleblebleehhhh, for some of you who constantly message me, I'm sorry if I haven't replied in a LONG while. I finally tried to do something about my procrastination and told myself this single rule: "No more video games, answering emails, watching youtube, going on facebook, and watching anime until you finish the next chapter. BETCH." aaaaand, obviously, it worked =] You guys'll get your replies tomorrow, at best ;P**

**I think Deidara's sexeh.**

**The Gaga theorem: (RAH)² (AH)³ + RO (MA + MAMA) + (GA)² + OOH(LA)² = Bad Romance**

**Lol, stay tuned you guys, AND PLEASE REVIEWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3**


	3. Epic battles come AFTER boring geography

**Author's Notes:**

**Lool, cookie to anyone who can tell me how long it's been since the last chapter came out xDDD**

**Yeah... uhh... sorry about that :( Writer's Block :D**

**Anyways, this one's a short chapter *DUCKS AS WRENCHES AND CARS ARE THROWN AT HER* BUUUUUUUT.... The next one's super-extra-mega-long :D Maybe cuz it's one of my favourite chapters that are... uhh... planned xD**

**Well, enjoy, I guess. And refer to the bottom for a little extra ;]**

**********************

I was yawning as I watered the fields that morning. Last night's excitement had kept me awake for a couple of hours more. So basically, I had gotten four hours of sleep, and now was expected to do all my chores, plus babysit this hot girl who just got here from overseas? I don't know whether I should be happy or angry.

Noticing that the watering can was empty, I rolled my eyes and decided to walk back to the fountain for a refill. The fountain was about ten minutes' walk from here, five minutes if I went Sheikah style, so I figured it'd be alright. No one would miss me, at least, I don't think so...

Quickly making up my mind, I shrugged and started in a light jog towards the field's opposite end. Once there, I jumped, now running and jumping across the next field with great speed.

When I finally got close to the fountain, I realized someone else was there, also fetching a pail of water. I slowed down as I got next to them, and finally recognized the golden blonde hair that circled the pale face of one of my friends.

"Morning, Tetra." I greeted her warmly as I walked next to her.

She suddenly jumped back and gasped slightly, watching me with terrified eyes, then relaxed and sighed out in relief.

"Oh, it's just you, Link..." she smiled lightly. "What are you doing here so early?"

"I should be asking the same to you." I grinned smugly.

"Figured since Sheik kindly let me stay at his house, I should at least help him." She shrugged, smiling as she filled her pail with water, then cleaned it out. "You?"

"Got a bunch of work to do, need water." I rolled my eyes, mimicking her actions with my watering can. "You know, you shouldn't have bothered yourself so much. Sheik could have just moved his own lazy ass and have come gotten it himself. You're really nice."

"Thank you... I think you're very strong and courageous too." She blushed. "Alright..." she filled her pail with water and got up, turning to me. "I'd better get going. I want to get home soon."

"Alright." I nodded. "Need a ride home?" I winked.

She blushed intensely and looked down again. "No thanks. I'll walk..." she simply said before she turned away and slowly started walking off.

I shrugged, not understanding what her flustered face was about, then filled my own watering can and jumped off towards our fields.

---

I finally finished watering the big fields around our house when I suddenly heard a window opening somewhere. I quickly dropped my tools and scampered towards the noise. I ended up in front of Zelda's window as she opened it to air her room a bit.

"LINK!" she screamed and waved cheerfully, noticing me.

"MORNING!" I waved back with a smile. A sudden breeze floated through, making her pale blue and semi-transparent nightdress fly around. My mind kept frozen on the "semi-transparent" part until Zelda smiled at me.

"Let me change, alright? I'll be right there!"

Without leaving me any time to reply, she closed her window, pulled her semi-transparent curtains over and turned around. I blushed really badly as I faintly saw her removing her nightdress. Cole should have given her more opaque lingerie and curtains. For freaking Farore's sake, why did he-

Screw it.

I closed my eyes and waited until I heard the curtains being drawn again. Then, I turned back up and smiled at her as she looked down at me.

"Let's go." I nodded.

"Sure. Be right down." She smiled and closed her window and blinds, running down. I didn't have to wait one minute for her to arrive.

"Let's go to town today. We're sure to run into Sheik and Dark and the girls on our way there." I suggested.

"I never refuse. I'd like to meet the people in town anyway." She smiled sweetly.

"Okay..." I blushed, then bent down. "Get on, we'll get there faster." I prompted.

"O-Okay..." she blushed shyly and gently got up my back, putting her arms around my neck.

"Let's leave." I got up, took my stand, then jumped, disappearing in a blur.

---

"So where are we headed to first?" I asked once me and my five friends landed in the center square of the village.

"A tour of the village sounds nice." Midna suggested.

"Let's do it." Dark nodded seriously.

"Alright, well, this is the center square." Sheik motioned around, and gestured at the spouting fountain in the middle. "That fountain was once a well. And this area wasn't a village. Some settlers decided to set camp around the well for easier reach to the water, and about twenty years later, this village was fully constructed, houses, services and all included." He explained.

"Next, we'll go to the residential houses." Dark nodded, leading the way.

We walked for a while, saluting a couple of people on the way there, then stopped in front of a street with a bunch of houses surrounding it.

"This area was once the place where the first settlers' tents were set up. Then, when they saw the good weather conditions around here, they made wooden cabins. A couple of years later, they realized the soil wouldn't lack nutrients anytime soon, so decided to make a village here, based on revenue from agriculture. The encampment was once a couple of cabins, then became a little bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until it became a full-fledged village." Dark explained proudly.

"You sure are smart." Midna remarked smugly.

"Smarter than Link anyway." Sheik muttered with a wry grin.

"You guys are so mean to me." I sulked, then grinned at them. "I could kick both your asses in a minute though."

"We'll see about that."

"CHALLENGE!" Dark screamed.

"Yeah, Link, I'd personally like to see what you can do as a trained Sheikah. I've never seen one fight before." Zelda piped in curiously.

"Okay, then, let's go to the outskirts, so that the village won't be touched when I unleash my devastating attacks on you." Sheik snickered.

"WHAT devastating attacks?" I laughed. "You don't HAVE any devastating attacks!"

"You don't either." Dark threw back.

"Neither do you. So now we're equal." I stuck a tongue out at him playfully.

"Okay, you guys, not here. Outside, okay?" Tetra blushed and shyly interrupted us.

"Okay." Sheik was the first to shrug and walk off like nothing had happened.

Dark and I also shrugged and followed him.

---

We were crossing the town square again, when suddenly, a shriek ripped through the air.

Being Sheikahs, and ready to die to help people, Sheik, Dark and I immediately whipped around, locating the source of the shriek. We relaxed and rolled our eyes, though, when we saw who shrieked.

"OH. MY. NAYRU!"

"Okay you guys, just keep cool." I muttered.

"I'll try." Dark growled back, annoyed.

"Oh. My. DIN!"

A young teenage girl suddenly skipped to their side and immediately grabbed Zelda's hand.

"Oh. My. FARORE!" she squealed in delight. "You're from that ship of Ladies that came here just yesterday, right? Right? Am I right?" she asked joyfully.

"Yeah..." Zelda muttered, blushing nervously.

"And you are...?" Midna asked, raising a brow.

"I'm Beth." The girl pointed at herself proudly. "And I get all sorts of information for this village. Any kind! Of course, I prefer gossip, but hey, information is information!" she grinned. "It's all thanks to me that half the village knew the ship was coming. I snoop in from every spot and collect all sorts of information. I don't need to be a Sheikah to do all that!" she blabbered on enthusiastically.

"Great Beth, now, uhh..." Sheik muttered. "We had some unfinished business, so if you don't have anything more to say..."

"Of COURSE I do! I always have something to say!" she squealed in a fangirl voice again.

Zelda looked at me, not sure what to do, but I couldn't do anything but shrug nervously.

"So you girls, you're probably not familiar with anyone here. I'll do you a favour and skip the part where you run around to meet people. I'll just call them here for you!" with that, Beth let go of Zelda's hand and put two of her fingers in her mouth. She then closed her eyes and whistled.

And when I mean she whistled, I mean she WHISTLED.

A shrill cry came from her mouth as all six of us were forced to close our ears. Once it was finished, I took my fingers out of my ears and rubbed them.

"You can sure whistle, Beth." I muttered.

"It's what I do best.... After gathering new gossip, that is." She grinned proudly. "Now, announcing the Gossip Collectors! Ta-Daaaaa!" she giggled, making a gentle move with her hand to show the five people who were running towards her.

"Oh Nayru..." Sheik muttered in a very low voice, burying his forehead in his hand.

"Alright, so everyone, meet Talo and Malo." She pushed two boys before her. Both of them had brown hair, but the taller one had it messy and unkempt, while the other had it in a ponytail on top of his head. The taller one was holding a stick in his hand, while the younger one just crossed his arms. As for clothes, the older one had a red bandana tied around his head, and a white shirt with brown pants underneath, while the younger one had a white shirt with an expensive-looking pair of green pants on his short legs. Neither of them wore shoes.

"I'm Talo, jumpiest kid in the village!" the older one raised his stick, forcing Tetra to take a step back to avoid being poked.

"Malo. Nothing like my foolish older brother." The young one said in a neutral, calm, and very low voice.

"Alrighty, next!" Beth pushed them back, then pushed an older teen in front of her.

"Hi. Name's Ilia. Nice to meet you." She smiled and held her hand out for Zelda to shake.

"Zelda." My protégée smiled back at the village kids' leader and babysitter.

Ilia had light brown hair and blue eyes, lighter than mine. She was wearing a simple white dress that cut at her mid-thighs, in a fashion that would be considered vulgar in some villages. Thankfully, under that, she wore brown pants, with a small satchel attached to her left thigh. She didn't wear shoes either, like the rest of the kids.

"And here's Colin." Beth blushed as she waved back at a small, shy-looking blond boy who simply looked down at the ground awkwardly.

"Hi... I'm Colin..." the blond with a bowl-cut hairstyle muttered under his breath. He was wearing white village clothes, simple and fresh. Nothing too special.

"And where's my favourite little girl?" I smirked.

"I'm here, Link, I'm here!"

"Where? I can't see anyone." I laughed as I mockingly searched the horizon for someone.

"Look down! Down!" a little girl's voice squeaked as someone started pulling on my pants.

"Okay, okay, don't pull my pants down now, I see you." I laughed, looking down. Dark blue met sparkling sky blue.

"It's been a long time I haven't seen you Link!" my other protégée laughed.

"Same here, Aryll." I bent down to give her a hug.

Seeing as she was breathing contently in my arms, I smiled and caressed her long blond locks. A breeze swept in, and I was careful to put my hand a bit further down to keep her blue dress with orange flowers on it from swishing up too high.

I suddenly got up, taking Aryll with me.

"Guys, this is Aryll. She's kind of a little sister to me. I met her a very long time ago, about eight years ago. Back then, she was just a little baby. I was a lot younger too. And in my Sheikah training years. During a stormy night, I felt trouble and went out alone. I saw a couple of merchants being killed by bandits and tried to stop them, but wasn't good enough." I sighed at the old memories flashing in my mind. "But then I found Aryll wrapped in blankets, and took her to the village. There, I spent some time trying to get her a foster home, and ever since then, I've loved her from distance." I nuzzled Aryll who turned around and poked my nose, laughing.

"You're funny, Link." She smiled sweetly.

"Alright, well, we got to go now, it's almost noon, so we might wanna stop somewhere to eat." Sheik suggested.

"Okay." Midna muttered. "I'm hungry anyway."

"Alright kids." I smiled, putting Aryll down and patting her hair. "Run along."

"OKAY! BYE LINK!" came an affirmative chorus of every single kid except Ilia in the gang as they ran off.

"Seeya later, Link." She winked, then ran off.

"Okay..." I turned around and looked at the party, blinking when I saw Zelda throw Ilia a death glare. "Zelda?"

"Yes Link?" she suddenly snapped out and smiled back at me sweetly.

"Do you wanna go eat?"

"Okay, sure..."

We were about to leave when Tetra suddenly stopped. We all stopped as well, wondering why she stopped. She was blushing madly, red from head to toe.

"You're a pretty lady..." an amazed voice suddenly gasped from below.

"Oh, hi there, Vaati." Dark smiled, looking down at the purple-haired kid who was feeling the material of Tetra's bluish dress.

"Mr Sheikah..." the six-year old's single red eye opened larger in amazement as he looked at us. "You're the nice Sheikahs who saved sister and I the other day..." he then turned his eyes to Midna and Zelda. "Are you princesses? You are pretty." He remarked.

The two girls suddenly blushed as hard as Tetra, who was still frozen, apparently embarrassed.

"VAATI!"

"Saria!" Sheik called back at the girl who was frantically looking around.

"Mr Sheik!" the 8 year old girl gasped. "Vaati!" she added, seeing her brother. She quickly ran to our side and took Vaati's hand. "Sorry if he caused you any trouble..." she quickly apologized.

"No, of course not. Actually, this is great. Zelda, Tetra, Midna, meet the Muratate's kids, Vaati and Saria." I waved at the two short pipsqueaks in front of us.

"My honour to meet you." Zelda slowly bowed, not even reaching Saria's size as she bent down.

"Muratate?" Midna questioned.

"My mom's this village's boss." Vaati proudly announced.

"Oh!" Tetra and Midna suddenly blinked, surprised, then bent down in a bow.

"That's fine." Saria waved carelessly. "Hey, why don't you come eat at our place?" she asked. "Mom would love to repay you for saving Vaati and me the other day."

"No, that's fine, but thanks for the offer..." Sheik muttered nervously, rubbing the back of his head with a smile.

"Yeah, come home with me, pretty lady." Vaati pulled a little more on Tetra's dress, then pleadingly looked up at Zelda.

There was a small silence between us, then Zelda sighed out.

"I don't see why we should refuse. They obviously like you guys, and I wouldn't want to see that adorable face crying." She shrugged with a defeated smile.

"YEY!" Vaati jumped in excitement. "This way, lady!" he suddenly pulled his hand out of Saria's and turned around, leading Tetra away.

Laughing, the rest of us followed them to the Muratate's house.

---

"Moooooom..." Saria whined as she knocked on the door for the fourth time.

"Maybe she's not home?" I suggested.

"Noo, she should be home, after all, she has lots of paperwork to do." Saria sighed.

"Oh." Came a collective response from all of us.

There was an awkward silence until Saria raised her fist to knock again. She was just about to when the door opened, letting show Midori.

"Yes?" she asked, then straightened as she saw us. "Oh hi, come on in!"

"Sorry for bothering you." Sheik apologized immediately.

"That's fine, I'm just surprised that you're he-"

"Mom, they're gonna eat with us, can they, can they, huh mom?" Saria piped in, jumping up and down excitedly.

"Can't say no to that face." The Muratate laughed, letting us in. "I'll just be calling a couple of people to go and get some lunch. I could use a break too." She sighed, heading inside. We also headed to the adjacent room, apparently the dining room.

"Sit down here!" Vaati pulled Zelda to the big table in the middle, pointing at a seat.

"Okay." Zelda looked amused as she sat down. Vaati quickly ran over and pulled the chair next to her, giving a little effort to get up on the higher chair.

"You can sit anywhere you want." Saria skipped over to the table and chose what apparently was her favourite place.

"Okay." I shrugged, taking a seat next to Zelda. Sheik sat next to me, with Tetra next to him, and then Midna, then Dark. Between Dark and Vaati stood a place for the Muratate.

"Alright, food's ready." Midori suddenly walked in with a big smile on her face and plates in her hands.

"FOOD!" Vaati and... Dark??? Cheered together.

"Let's eat!" the Muratate laughed at their reaction, putting down the plates full of food in front of everyone.

"DIG IN!"

---

After the food, we all left with a bunch of thanks and a full stomach.

"Hey, you promised us a demonstration!" Midna suddenly reminded us.

"Oh yeaaaah..." Dark looked thoughtfully up in the air, then nodded. "Alright, there's an empty field not far from here. We can walk there, and we'll make something like a mini-battle there." He suggested.

"Let's go then!" Sheik nodded in approval.

We all laughed as we set out towards the field.

About halfway there, Zelda pulled my shirt a little. I turned to her and smiled.

"Yes?"

"I have a question..." she muttered, blushing.

"Shoot." I nodded.

"What's Hyrule's geography like?" she asked. "I mean, what does it look like? Are there many more villages? What are the surrounding countries? And the terrain?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down." I laughed. "Let's take it one at a time."

She nodded as I cleared my throat.

"Hyrule is a rectangular continent, with jagged ends towards the ocean. At the west side, there is a break, where Great Bay turns into the Zora River. The Zora River is our main river. It has many branches, the Zora, Goron, and Kokiri branches, most noticeably. Each one lead to their respective lakes. Lake Hylia for the Zora branch, Lake Goron for the Goron branch, and Lake Kokiri for the Kokiri branch. Across the Main Zora River, there is a peninsula. The Hylian Peninsula. There is a pier there too, and it's mostly used as a village area because of its fertile soil." I continued.

"Right." She nodded, storing all that in her memory.

"Then, the geographic and economic capital is Castle Town. Another important economic point is Kakariko Village. There are other minor villages too. But the only Sheikah villages are the following: Village Hidden in the Blades of Grass, the main pier of Hyrule, on the Oceanside. Then, the Village Hidden in the Underground Depths, a village that is made 300 feet under the ground. Afterwards, there's the Village Hidden High in the Clouds, at the southeast part of Hyrule, a village that is located at the top of a mountain, and literally hidden in the clouds. Then, the Village Hidden Behind the Waterfall, a village next to Lake Hylia, a village whose entrance is literally located behind a massive waterfall. Then, the Village Hidden in the Erupting Volcanoes, a village hidden at the foot of a volcanic mountain known as Death Mountain. And last but not least, Village Hidden in the Centre, or Central Village. It's the demographic capital of Hyrule, as well as the main Sheikah activity location. All the universities, schools, and colleges and all, they're all there." I sighed to catch my breath after such a long explanation.

"Wow. That's kind of hard to picture..." Tetra remarked shyly.

"Here, lemme draw it for you." Sheik grabbed a stick on the ground, then crouched and started drawing a general map of Hyrule, marking the elements that I'd talked about.

"Ah, I got it." She nodded.

"As for terrain, it's mostly made of fertile fields. In the region of Erupting Volcanoes, there are some mountains, as well as the mountain chain around the Hidden Cloud Village. The soil around the rivers and lakes are also very fertile, and are very good for agriculture. That's our main practice here, in Hyrule."

"Yep, yep." Sheik and Dark nodded at the same time, making us all snicker.

"As for surrounding lands, there's the Great Labi-Hylian Forest, also known as the Lost Woods, at our extreme west. Half of it belongs to Labyrennu, the country below us, the other half belongs to us. Labyrennu's capital is called Timeharp city. And it has many Sheikan villages that go undercover. They don't appear on any maps, but are a force to be reckoned with. Above us is Great Bay, the seemingly endless ocean, and after that, there is Termina and Holodrum. Termina's pier is called Port-Au-Masque, as Holodrum's pier is called Dancer Pier." I nodded, trying to remember if I missed anything. **(A/N: If YOU missed something, refer to ending notes for some visual explanations :D)**

"Ah, much better." Midna nodded, looking at the elements that Sheik added on his drawing.

"Yes, thank you for this small geography lesson." Zelda bowed lightly, letting some hair fall off her shoulders.

"No problem." I smiled at her, and blushed as my fingers reached out and pushed a strand of hair back. She gave me a surprised look. "It... It was blocking your view." I muttered, looking down at the ground.

"Then in that case." She smiled, and suddenly leaned in. Time slowed down and my breath hitched as she got closer to my face. Closer, and closer, and closer, until her breath was caressing my reddened cheeks. And I almost gasped when she leaned in and pressed a light, sweet and soft kiss on my cheek and said "Thank you." before drawing back and giggling lightly.

I turned around, trying to regulate my breathing, and trying to hide the fact that my shoulders were shaking. Sweating profusely, I massaged my eyes to clear the blurs in my vision. Behind me, I could hear everyone giggling and commenting in low whispers.

"You haven't seen many girls before, have you?" Midna chuckled when I turned back.

"No." I averted my eyes. "Now, I think we owe you guys a demonstration, am I right or not?"

---

"Okay, now stay here, out of range of our attacks. Kay?" Sheik looked Tetra straight in the eye as he put her down from his back.

"Okay." She whispered shyly and nodded.

"You two stay here too." Sheik ordered as he put Tetra and Zelda down. I had refused, out of pure stubbornness, to take Zelda on my back for the trip. Must have been the aftermath of that kiss she gave me. She now had that kicked-puppy-innocent-pleading-guilty-eyes look on her. I don't know if I should give her a smile, or a forgiving look. I couldn't even face her without blushing now.

"Let's go." I simply muttered before I jumped off towards the middle of the field.

---

"Okay, you guys ready?" I asked, stretching my arms.

"Don't cry when you lose." Sheik smirked, cracking his fists.

"Says the weakest one of us." Dark chuckled.

"I think you're mistaken." Sheik retorted.

"Guys." I called, sighing out. They both turned their attention to me. I lifted my eyes and smirked viciously. "I'M the one whom you should be worried about."

And I disappeared.

From where I was, I saw the guys drop in a defensive position. I stayed in my shadow for a moment, watching them survey the field, trying to find me. When they both gave their backs to me, I sprang out of my shadow, rising behind them, and drawing a kunai from the pouch that was constantly attached to my thigh.

Sheik must have heard the metal sound because he also drew a kunai and spun around, barely blocking in time. Dark spun around afterwards, also drawing a kunai and attacking me almost instantly. I jumped back to avoid his swing, then backflipped a couple of times to get away from them, landing on my feet and blending into the shadows again.

"Two can play at that game." Dark screamed out loud and also dove into the shadows.

"Fine." Sheik muttered, following.

I stayed in my shadow, trying to locate them, when suddenly a strange pain ran across my dematerialized body. With a scream of pain, I was forced out of my shadow and dropped on the earth, rolling and coughing some dust out of my throat.

"You just got a taste of my Kage Atsuryoku Technique, the Shadow Pressure Technique." Dark chuckled, pulling out of his shadows, landing in a crouched position, his hands put together in a hand sign that helped concentrate his tsuyosa and locate the target.

"Well take this!" Sheik suddenly leapt out of the shadows behind Dark and make a hand sign. "Sugoi Matsu!" the ground under Dark rumbled and he gasped as several roots sprang out and grabbed his feet quickly spreading up to his arms. "Great Pine Tree Technique!" with that, my blond friend backflipped and landed in between Dark and I, facing the former.

"Now you face me!" I made a hand sign and concentrated my chikara. "Owarinai Shiroi Sora!" I let my chikara radiate from around me, releasing a new type of technique. "Endless White Sky Technique!"

Sheik suddenly looked like he was mentally struck by something. He froze and stumbled, zoned out. His pupils shrunk as his mouth gaped. I snickered, watching the empty expression on his face as he got caught in my illusionary world, one where there was nothing but white.

Sheik suddenly twitched and brought his hands together. I frowned, dropping in a battle position. He clapped his hands together and his eyebrows furrowed. "Fade out!" he screamed, and dropped to his knees panting. I smirked.

"Got you there." I chuckled.

"Well, after training with you for over three years, I think it's pretty obvious what your techniques are and how they are defeated.

"No fun." I smirked.

We both suddenly froze, literally. I growled as I turned around, not without taking an eternity. There was Dark, crouched with a hand sign, smirking at us.

"Atama Kooru! Mind Freeze!" he gave a short, humourless laugh.

"Y-You..." Sheik gritted his teeth, probably not believing he fell for something like that. I couldn't either.

"Well, what now?" I asked, sighing.

"Nothing for you. You just wait there like nice little boys as I come close to defeat you." He laughed.

"Just try." Sheik taunted.

"Okay." A kunai suddenly slipped from his belt and into his hands. My breath hitched. Was I really going to lose to him?

"I refuse..." I growled, trying to concentrate my tsuyosa in my head, trying to get the technique to wear off. "To lose!" I closed my eyes, hearing Dark accelerate his pace into a full run. I had to break out.

"Too late!" he screamed, jumping, ready to bring his kunai down on me.

"NEVER TOO LATE!" I grinned as I spun around, but instead of stopping in front of him, I continued my spin, spreading my arms out and spinning, releasing tsuyosa from my palms. "Chikara Tate! Tsuyosa Shield!" I screamed out, hearing Dark's weapon clanging on the semi-opaque dome that had been made around me.

When I stopped, Dark fell back, looking dizzy. He dropped his kunai and laid down on his back, breathing harshly. Sheik also fell, his chikara depleted while he tried to fight against Dark's technique.

"Haha! I win!" I laughed triumphantly. "I beat you both, and I feel just fi-" the world suddenly swayed and my eyes dropped on their own. The last thing I felt was the contact between my skin and the cold dirt.

---

"You awake?"

I blinked slowly, trying to accustom my eyes to the light. A figure came into my vision. I focused on it until Zelda's blond hair and purple eyes came back into place.

"That was some scare you gave us." She scolded. "I mean, you won that epic battle, and then you suddenly fall unconscious." She shrugged and caressed my hair. "Sheik just said it was because you had released so much chikara after not using it for such a long time. You'll be back on your feet soon." She smiled comfortingly.

"Oh... Thanks..." I muttered, trying to see where I was. She must have seen my questioning gaze because she giggled.

"You're in my room." She informed me.

"Ah..." I gritted my teeth, pushing myself up.

"Hey, don't move!" she frowned at me, pushing me back down. "You haven't recovered yet!"

"I feel fine." I got back up and swung my legs over the bed. "Just a bit dizzy." I sighed. "What time is it?"

"Almost midnight." She informed me, throwing me a concerned look.

"Cool. I'll just be heading down to my bed. You get some sleep too, okay? Tomorrow's a new day and you're gonna need all your energy for all the new things you're gonna discover." I told her.

"Alright. Need help getting down?" she asked, helping me get out of bed.

"No no, I'm fine." I smiled reassuringly. "Now sleep tight, okay?"

"Yeah. Same for you." The fallen angel in the majestic bedroom laughed a crystalline laugh before I closed the door on her radiant face.

"That was a poetic thought." I rolled my eyes smugly, heading down the stairs to my room.

Once inside, I closed the door behind me and sighed in content, stretching before yawning and laying down on my bedroll.

"Sleep..." I muttered, closing my eyes and curling up. My very last thought was that of the sweet kiss Zelda gave me today.

************

**Author's Notes:**

**Aaaw :3 Doesn't everyone love fillers? *ducks as another wave of cars and wrenches rain on her***

**Techniques = jutsus. They're all in japanese at first, and instead of putting the definitions at the end in the notes, I figured I'd insert them in the dialogue. I hope it doesn't seem too complicated to you, but it sounds pretty good to me :3 Oh, and don't kill me if you can understand japanese and you just realized I killed EVERYTHING xD **

**And before we go anywhere else, the geographical aspect. If you are COMPLETELY LOST in this WORLD of WEIRDNESS xDDD then refer to this site: _www(dot)zeldafanfics(dot)webs(dot)com_... It's my fansite. Made it as a site where you can find extras on my fanfics. If you're interested, _I drew and coloured a map of my Hyrule_. It's in the "photos" tab. For others, there is everything from public brainstorming, fanart, visual explanations and more info to roleplaying too :] Umm... PLEASE CHECK IT OUT? D: There's a super funny picture of me on the front page? :D**

**Anyway... I hope you guys are anxious for the next chapter, CUZ I AM! :D You can consider these first three chapters as a prologue... The REAL story starts on chapter 4 ;)**

**Oh, and if anyone has watched Naruto or pretty much ANY anime, you know that after the ending credits, you get a sneak peek at the next episode? Since this fic is somewhat of a ZeldaxNaruto crossover, I figured I'll do the same with my fics :3 So after the ending A/N's, there'll be a sneak peek of the next chapter! :D**

**I don't think I had any other messages... R.I.P. THE GUY IN THE OLYMPICS, KEEP WATCHING THE GAMES, VISIT MY FANSITE PLEAAAAASE, AND STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPIC INSTALLEMENT OF "HISTORY WON'T REPEAT ITSELF"!!!**

**Edit: I was about to post this when I realized I hadn't begged for reviews. So PLEAAAAAAASEEEEEEEEEE REVIEEEEEEEEEEWWWW!!!!!!!!! *bows at your feet***

**_----------------_**

_Zelda: Wow! I can't believe it's been 5 months already! Jeez Hylian winters sure kill!_

_Link: Yeah... But I have a bad feeling about this..._

_Zelda: Oh, come on, Link. Is this about Ganondorf delaying his return?_

_Link: I don't know. It feels like an omnious aura._

_Zelda: Alright, whatever you say. For now, stop worrying, you've got a job to do!_

_Link: Right, I gotta take refreshements to Cole's private meeting for him and his buddies?_

_Zelda: Yeah, just go for it!_

_Link: Hey, sounds like they're whispering. I wonder what they're talking about._

_Zelda: It's not good to eavesdrop, you know._

_Link: *gasps* *drops drinks*_

_Zelda: Link? Link! What are they saying? What can you hear!? LINK!!??_

_**Chapter 4: Chase**_


	4. Chase

**Author's Notes:**

**Woohoo! New record! New chapter in 15 days! xD**

**The reason why this didn't go as smoothly as I wanted it to go was because there was the first part. The first part took me 14 days to write, and the second part, the 3 hours that made the transition between day 14 and day 15 xD**

**And about the reviews... You guys, I had 26 reviews for chapters 1 and 2, and then, chapter 3 got the review count up to 31 D: Why did I get 13 reviews per first 2 chapters, and dropped to 5 for chapter 3? D: Don't you love me enough to leave a review? *starts crying hysterically like she did when Deidara died in Shippuuden***

**Speaking of that, a little note about my Naruto fic: Yes, I've started writing Naruto, for those who didn't notice. First of all, I'm sorry if I disregarded your opinion on my poll, but truth is, this is a democracy, and I got about 6 votes for "Write Naruto but keep Zelda as your top priority". So that's what I did. Sorry to all your people who have me on alert, and who will receive alerts for my Naruto fic D: Don't un-alert me, though, PLEASE! Keep me on alert, but just delete the alerts for my Naruto fic T_T**

**Anyway, that was my note. Enjoy the epic-est chapter yet. The other three were like one huge introduction, but here is the main action of the story. Hope you enjoy it. A record-breaking chapter of 9500 words :D**

**Warning: Fair bunch of cussing :D I don't think it bothers you all, though...**

**(Takes place 5 months later)**

*******************

Five months passed like a breeze. We were all grim towards the end of the second month, as Zelda would have to marry off. Thankfully, the Goddesses decided to shine upon us, and Ganondorf sent Cole a message the other day, telling him he'd be late yet again, delaying his return greatly. We'd all been immensely happy with the news.

Zelda is not the shy lady she used to be. She used to shy away and stutter, and now, she'd usually jump on me and laugh as a form of greeting. Tetra and Midna were also happy of her new attitude, and were encouraged by it. Now, the three girls act like they've been living in Hyrule for their entire lives. We had a lot of fun together, taking them around the country and all that.

But no matter how much we smiled, there was always a hovering aura above us. And not just any aura. A bad one. Dark, ominous, tense... What else can I describe it as?

I mean, it's only logical that the harder the sun shines, the bigger the cast shadows are. The more joy our lives have, the more darkness will follow. That's the universal law of karma.

Storm clouds gather often above the village and the neighbouring areas. There's always this tense feeling, everywhere I go. Winter has now advanced, and the once mighty Hylian winter has been struck down by storm clouds. We had snow only a couple of times since the beginning of winter, but asides that, the grey clouds seemed to hold back on us. A depressing thought, really.

But apparently, I was the only one to notice. The others just went around, moving about to their usual occupations, doing what they usually do. Maybe I was the only one who worried so much over such trivial things?

Or maybe they all noticed, but decided to keep it a secret as not to burden the others, just as I chose to do.

---

Knock knock.

"Come on in." A giggling voice said from inside the room.

I slowly pushed the door and walked inside, smiling at the blonde who was lying in her bed, reading a book.

"Morning, sunshine." I greeted.

"Good morning." She laughed, then spied the platter on my hands. "I spy with my freaky weird purple eyes something delicious that you hold in your hands." She hinted.

"I don't think your eyes are freaky, nor weird. I think it's pretty cool, actually. How many times have I told you that?" I laughed, walking to her bedside and sitting on it.

"A million." She smiled, putting her book away on her night table. "So... What brings you here?"

"Just thought I'd bring you breakfast. You know, nothing too special."

"You couldn't sleep again, could you?" she sighed, taking the platter off my hands and putting it on her stretched legs, covered in the creamy pink blanket.

"It's just a little insomnia, that's all." I muttered, turning away.

"Yeah, cause heavy purple bags under your eyes are signs of a _little_ insomnia." She shrugged, sipping some orange juice.

"Mhm." I chuckled, trying to keep that issue away from her. I tried, for the last three months, to keep my insomnia issues away from her, but it became obvious towards the second and a half month. My purple lids gave it all away.

Truth is, I couldn't sleep because I was constantly on alert. My body felt tired all the time, but my mind told me to stay awake, telling me something bad was going to happen soon, and that I'd have to be prepared. Stupid brain. Three months, and nothing happened. I don't get why it still needs me to stay up all night.

"So.... small talk. How's the weather?" she asked seriously, grabbing her toast delicately and spreading some butter and jam on it.

"See for yourself." I smiled and went up to open her shades. Her eyes widened as she gaped at the sight of fluffy white clouds falling gently from the sky.

"Wow! That's amazing! We've never gotten this much snow before!" she blinked, surprised. True, she had only been around this winter, long enough to see what snow was like. Being a very tropical country, except for the mountains, Zelda had never seen snow in Termina. The sight of this much white crap amazed her, just as it amazed me.

After such a long time, we finally got snow.

That can't be good, can it?

---

"Let's go down to the barn. It's kinda frilly today, and I have to put a quilt on Epona." I suggested.

"Okay." She nodded, immediately running to the coat hanger, grabbing her delicate brown cloak and draping it around her frail body. She then grabbed her white scarf and tied it around her neck, just enough to close her mouth and part of her nose.

"Let's go." I smiled, opening the door.

"It's been some time since I last saw Epona." Zelda remarked, heading for the adjacent barn.

"A couple of weeks. Last time, we went on a ride by the pier with her, and it wasn't snowing yet. Now, she's gotta stay inside, and keep warm, if we want to ride her again sometime." I informed her, opening the sliding door to the red-coloured building that housed the animals.

As soon as we got inside, we were assailed by the sound of sheep, goats, cows, pigs and a couple of horses, seemingly feuding. A couple of random chickens were clucking through the entire mess of noise, trying to find some dropped feed in the hay that covered the ground. It wasn't very well lit inside, which is why I pulled the string that dangled from above, lighting the entire place up.

"Alright, you guys, stay calm." I sighed, heading through the noise towards the horses' stalls.

The rest were surely just bitching anyway, because I took care of every single one of these guys earlier this morning.

"Eponaaaaa!" I called affectionately, gazing lovingly at my smart horse, who was the only one who wasn't contributing to the mess of animal noises in the barn.

She snorted and got up from her crouched position, getting nearer to me. I extended my hand, and she sniffed it, then licked it, gazing into my blue eyes with her black ones. I caressed her light brown mane with my fingers, smiling at her.

"You cold, baby?" I asked, still caressing her gently.

She snorted, stepping back to let me in. I took it as a yes. Behind me, the noises were slowly declining. I figured Zelda must have appeased the animals.

I jumped over the locked stall door, landing inside Epona's stall. She didn't move, even as I grabbed the colourful quilt off the dusty ground and put it on her brown body. She made a small noise, in satisfaction, I presume, and tossed her mane, nuzzling close to me in appreciation.

"You're welcome, baby." I laughed, kissing her wet nose before jumping the barrier again, just to land in front of Zelda.

"So how come you call your horse 'baby', but you never have any pet names for the girl who's been crashing over at your place for over five months?"

"Aaaw, is Zellie jealous?" I laughed, suddenly sweeping her off her feet, bridal style. She gasped slightly, then reddened, ruffling my hair.

"Put me down, you old pervert." She laughed.

"I'm hurt." I rolled my eyes sarcastically, putting her down and crouching in a corner.

"Aw, come on, not the emo corner again!" she laughed.

"RESPECT THE EMO CORNER!" I screamed out from my crouched position.

She laughed again, a pure laugh that rang out in the now silent barn. To that voice, I couldn't help but jump up and smile.

"Know what? Screw the emo corner." I laughed, grabbing her hand. "Let's go outside, it's nice." I suggested.

"Hm!" she nodded vigorously, apparently overjoyed at the idea of going out in the snow.

---

We had barely stepped outside when suddenly, four people landed in front of us. I flinched slightly, but not as hard as Zelda, as I recognized the familiar dark blue and black cloaks of my best friends. Besides them, two girls, in turquoise and orange cloaks, headed for Zelda, immediately embracing before starting to chit-chat.

"Guys!" I greeted.

"Link!" they greeted back simultaneously. I'd always found it funny that these two were always so coordinated, even if they didn't do it on purpose.

"Check the snow!"

"Yeah, we haven't seen snow like this since last year's rough winter." Dark muttered.

"You're complaining about it?" Sheik laughed.

"No..."

"What can we do today?" I asked. "I'm bored to death."

The two boys looked at each other, and grew evil grins.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" I immediately ducked as the voices of my two best friends rang out in the cold air around us. A second later, two snowballs whizzed past where my head used to stand a moment ago.

"Two can play at that game!" I laughed, scooping up a snowball, and throwing it at Dark. He back flipped away, and landed crouching.

"Technically, three." Sheik corrected, loading some snowballs in his arms, shooting them one after another at me. I skilfully cart wheeled and back flipped away, avoiding them all. I'm a Sheikah, after all.

"TAKE THIS!"

Before I knew it, a snowball crashed into the back of my head, wetting my long hair, and slipping down my spine. I shivered and dropped onto the fuzzy ground.

"Oops."

"Who threw that...?" I muttered, freezing.

Zelda giggled at that.

"Owned by a non-Sheikah." Midna and Tetra laughed and high-fived.

"Oh yeah!? Fear me, mortals! For I shall destroy you all!" I laughed, and attacked the helpless girls as we all screamed and laughed under a rain of snowballs.

---

Sighing, I shook some snow off of me and knocked at my employer's office door. Byrne just HAD to come and break up our fun by telling me I had an assignment.

"Come in."

I slowly pushed in and went inside, gaining a disapproving look from Cole.

"Why are you wet?" he asked coldly.

"I... I was outside in the snow, Sir..." I muttered.

"I still wonder why you have nothing better to do than frolic in the snow all day with your so-called 'friends'." He sneered.

I gritted my teeth, but didn't say anything. I really didn't like it when people insulted my friends, but this was my employer we're talking about. He could get mad really easily. And you wouldn't wanna see him when he's mad...

"Anyway, for your assignment." He put his small hand under the desk, pulling out a scroll. "You'll be needed to go to the Village Hidden in the Underground Depths. In their huge department store, I need you to buy all these. We're having guests over tonight, so I need some stuff, and while you're at it, bring in everything else we need." He ordered, handing me the scroll.

"How much time do I have?" I inquired.

"Until eight at night. They'll be coming late. Two hours to go, two hours to come back, that should leave you about four hours to complete your assignment. More than enough." He informed me.

"Can I take people with me?" I asked, crossing my fingers behind my back.

Cole's brows furrowed, thoughtful. I bit my lip at his serious –or seriously displeased- expression as he rubbed his chin.

"As long as it won't slow you down, yes." He finally gave in, crossing his arms.

"Thank you, Sir." I grinned, bowing lightly in front of him.

"Here." He handed me a pouch of clinking coins and bills. I took it and tied it to my waist. "Just make sure you have everything before returning."

"Yes Sir. I'll be leaving right away, Sir." Grinning, I nodded and bowed, more out of obligation than respect, and left the room.

---

"So where are we going?" Zelda asked as we flew through the trees, me carrying her as Sheik carried Tetra and Dark carried Midna.

"Told you already. Village Hidden in the Underground Depths." I answered, concentrating on making the jumps.

"And what do we get to do there?" Tetra asked next from us.

"Shopping, jeez. We told you at least five times already." Sheik rolled his eyes.

"Cool!" Midna cheered.

"Mhm! We can have fun while Link does his stuff." Dark laughed.

"Some friends." I laughed.

"I'll help you. After all, I don't know what to do else, so... Yeah. Might as well help." Zelda laughed.

"We'll see when we get there." Sheik nodded.

"Cool, now shut up, boys. We have a two-hour ride in front of us, and I personally wouldn't want my stamina running out in mid-jump." Dark rolled his eyes.

"Good idea." Sheik and I replied simultaneously as the girls started a conversation, leaving us guys to concentrate on the jumps.

---

We got there two hours later, obviously. Completely drained, Sheik, Dar and I had to sit down for a moment, to catch our breath. All while the girls kept chattering like birds.

"My legs..." Sheik complained.

"My back..." I groaned, stretching.

"My ears..." Dark laughed, getting him a dirty glare from the girls.

We all burst out laughing a second later, and after being well-rested, all set out towards the middle of the empty field we were standing in.

"So where's the village?" Midna asked, looking around. I had to admit it wasn't very obvious if it was the first time you came here.

"The name says it all." Dark answered.

"Stop here." I suddenly stopped them on a boulder standing randomly in the middle of the field.

The others nodded as silence fell between us. I extended my hand and put it on the boulder. Even if I concentrated a very small portion of my tsuyosa in it, I saw a symbol lighting up on the boulder, the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Underground Depths. An arrow facing downwards.

"Number, Village, Purpose." A voice suddenly rang out of nowhere. The girls looked startled, but I simply retracted my hand.

"Three Sheikah males, three normal females, all from the Village Hidden in the Blades of Grass, here for a shopping trip." I said out loud.

"Alright. Welcome to the Hidden Underground Village."

With that, the earth rumbled as the girls held onto their respective guys. Slowly, the boulder shape-shifted to become an elevator-like structure.

"Go on." I told the girls, escorting them into the lift.

"Why did they ask so many questions?" Midna asked curiously as the lift started moving down, into the ground.

"All villages have the same pattern. They ask those questions to make sure no one with hostile intentions is coming in. Not that anyone with hostile intentions would tell them that, but..." Dark started explaining, but left a trail for Sheik to pick up.

"They also have the right to demand leaving your weapons or inspect them if you're too many Sheikahs, or can refuse access to the village if your motives aren't important enough." He explained. "It's just a matter of security."

"Yeah, sometimes, you can even get escorts, who will follow you from the time you step inside the village boundaries to the time you step out." I finished.

"Sounds very strict to me..." Zelda shrugged, sighing.

"It's just to prevent any evil-intentioned people from getting in. The last thing we need in this country is a war." Tetra suddenly piped in. "But that's just my opinion."

"Like Tetra said." Sheik nodded.

"Alright." I turned around 180 degrees, coming face-to-face with a metallic door as the lift stopped. "We're here."

---

"Wow..." Zelda marvelled, walking around, her hand in mine. I had told her to stick close to me, and I guess since it was a habit, she grabbed my hand. "I never knew there was an underground city like this... It's so cool!"

"You said it..." Tetra gaped as she stared at the many buildings that were built in an air bubble naturally created in the layers of the earth.

"It's wonderful. To think mankind has evolved far enough to build underground cities..." Midna added with a nod.

"Yep. And because of this technologically advanced village, the Hidden Underground Village is considered the main shopping spot in all of Hyrule. See that huge building there?" Dark pointed at the tallest building, one that was towering above the rest in a very spectacular way.

"That's the main department store." Sheik finished with a smile. "Every store you want, anything you might need, you can find it within the 36 levels that make this mall up. It's. Goddamn. HUGE."

"Wooooow." Midna gasped, looking up at the nearing building.

Tetra and she suddenly turned to each other simultaneously, grinning devilishly.

"Now that's our kind of place, huh Mid?" the blonde laughed.

"Ooooh yeah." The orange-haired girl giggled. "You guys better have some cash to spend, cause we're gonna rob it all!"

"Aaaaw, great." Dark and Sheik hung their heads as the two girls high-fived.

"Well, you guys have fun. I have a job to do." I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"I'll come with you." Zelda smiled, but stopped as Midna and Tetra grabbed her arm, making her turn around to meet their evil gazes.

"Oooh no, you're not!"

"Ooooh, yes, dear. You need some new dresses."

"And Sheik and Dark will be happy to provide for you."

"Ah... WAIT, WHAT???!!!"

---

We'd split up at the front of the mall. Zelda had been dragged off with Tetra, Midna, Sheik and Dark, going for some shopping fun. Sheik and Dark were paying for Zelda, but I'd promised I'd pay them back later. I had gone on alone, quickly going around and buying all the supplies I needed. We had about two hours, so I had to finish fast if I wanted to catch up with the others.

Thankfully, most of the things I had to buy were groceries, meaning I just had to stay on one level, the fifth one, which was filled with food stalls and shops. Towards the middle of the second hour, I was loaded with brown paper bags filled with groceries, above all.

Sighing, I spread my chikara out, trying to locate Sheik's and Dark's own. It took quite some time and effort, but when I found them, I released and grinned. I needed more training to learn to control my tsuyosa better, but that would come later, when I actually had some time off.

Having sat down while analysing the mall for my friends' familiar chikara, my aching legs were fully rested, and so I jumped up, grabbed my bags and headed to the elevator that would take me to the 27th level, where I'd found them.

---

I later found them in a clothing store, in the dresses section. Sheik and Dark were sitting down, bags all around them, looking miserable. Midna and Tetra were crowded around something, giggling and playing with the delicate cloth covering it.

I walked closer to Sheik and Dark, who sensed me from afar and turned to me, smiling. I put down my bags next to theirs, and sat down on the bench they were resting on.

"Yo."

"Yo," they both replied in a tired voice.

"Someone's been getting busy." I laughed, looking at Sheik, who had a hint of eye shadow and blush on his face.

He blushed even harder as Dark started laughing.

"Apparently, Tetra thinks I look like a girl, and used me to test her new makeup." He muttered miserably.

"She looks pretty darn adorable, doesn't she?" Dark laughed, looking at Sheik.

"Shut up, you only avoided your share because Midna spotted a pretty dress on the store across." He growled.

"Come on, Sheik, Dark. Don't fight." I snickered. "Besides, you look pretty ravishing today, Milady." I bowed to Sheik, who started ripping his hair out.

"I DON'T LOOK LIKE A GODDAMN GIRL, DAMMIT!"

Dark and I started laughing, hearing a faint 'If anyone looks like a girl, it's Link, him and his long hair...' coming from Sheik.

"Guys!"

We all stopped laughing and looked at the two girls, who were crowded in front of a bunch of overlapped tissues.

"Alright, presenting the most gorgeous angel on this planet... Zelda Harkinian!" Tetra and Midna announced at the same time.

"Oh please, you're making me blush..."

And we all watched, awed, as the girls split apart to reveal the angel they had announced.

A TRUE angel.

Whatever it was that was standing in front of me, it wasn't human. An illusion, maybe. Or a demon. Or someone using a shape shifting technique. But it wasn't human. Too beautiful to be human.

My eyes started at her bare feet, barely visible under the cream-coloured folds of her ivory dress. Her underskirts were barely showing, smooth, halfway-transparent peach-coloured silk running around it. At her waist, the dress got tight, sticking to her curves, her beautiful, perfect body. A bit further up, the dress showed a little dip, revealing the first lines of her cleavage, enough to make my heart skip a beat, but not enough to do anything else. Semi-transparent strips of cream-coloured silk held the dress up, circling her delicate shoulders, almost blending completely with her skin tone.

A shiny necklace, probably not diamond, but beautiful enough, was hanging on her delicate neck. Matching silver studs were pierced on her earlobes. My attention was drawn to the beautiful strands of golden hair falling in front of her pointed ears, the longest strands barely brushing her shoulders, and her fringe dipping over her left eyebrow. The rest of her hair was bunched up at the back of her head, giving a full view on her pale neck.

She smiled nervously, seeing my wide eyes scouring over her body, taking into account every single detail.

"Y-You like it?" she asked in a shy whisper, blushing, adding some colour to her pale face.

I was left speechless for a moment, before Sheik whistled, making her blush harder. Dark gave her a thumbs up, then the two boys turned to the other girls, chatting on how they did it, and where they got the inspiration.

I was left, staring at her. She bowed her head, making more strands of hair flow down her shoulders.

"It-It..." I finally gulped down and shook my head, blinking rapidly. "Y-You're gorgeous." I scratched my head nervously.

Her beautiful violet eyes looked up at me, seemingly surprised.

"O-Oh! Y-You think so?" she finally smiled, and switched her weight from one foot to another. "T-Thanks, I think it's very pretty too! I'd like to wear it to the New Year's ball... It's coming up soon, and all, and I thought maybe-"

"How much does it cost?" I cut in, blushing.

She cocked her head, surprised, but cleared her throat.

"T-Three hundred rupees..." she looked down miserably. She had probably figured out, like I had, that that cost about the equivalent of three cows. Three cows... was a HUGE deal. "B-But I can choose something that costs less. It doesn't bother me..."

"No no." I shook my head quickly. "I-I'll buy it for you."

She looked surprised, blinking, her eyes wide. A huge smile crossed her face.

"Y-You will! Thank you! I swear I'll make it up to you!" she jumped up and down excitedly.

"That's okay. Take it as a late 'welcome to Hyrule' gift." I blushed, digging into my halfway-empty pouch, counting the coins and bills. Out from the three hundreds I'd been given, I had a hundred rupees left.

"Sheik, Dark..." I looked towards my best friends with pleading eyes.

They immediately caught on, and winced at the same time.

"I promise I'll pay you back! I'm sure I have enough money at home." I cocked my head to the sides questioningly. _"Please? For Zelda?"_ I added mentally.

"Let me see." Sheik nodded, followed by Dark. Together, they dug into their pockets and took out some coins and bills, counting.

"I have 95 rupees." Dark announced, sighing.

"Sheik?" I asked in an almost-squeaky voice.

"100."

"DAMMIT!" I groaned. "5 rupees short!"

"Wow, that's a huge bummer!" Tetra shook her head sadly. "That dress went so nice on Zelda..."

"Shit..." I turned to Zelda, who was looking at the ground miserably. "I'm sorry. I swear I'll buy it for you next time we come here, okay?"

"Yeah... Sure." She gave me a fake smile and nodded.

"Damn, I can't believe we're only five rupees short!" Dark growled.

"5 rupees short to buy what?"

All of us whipped around to look at the newcomer. Big, innocent blue eyes shone in the light as the little blond head cocked her head to the sides, making her pigtails drop over her shoulders.

"Aryll..." I chuckled nervously. "What're you doing here?"

"Mmm." She took a thoughtful expression. "I saw you leaving and asked my mommy if she could take us to where you were going. She said yes and brought us here." She nodded.

"Ah, cool." I chuckled.

"Five rupees to buy what?" she suddenly repeated her previous question.

"Zelda's dress." I muttered, ashamed that I couldn't even buy my protégée her dress.

Aryll turned her blue eyes to Zelda, and analyzed her from head to toe.

"You're very pretty, Miss Zelda." She marvelled, getting close and grabbing her pale hand. "I like it when you're pretty like this."

I didn't quite get what that meant, but Zelda seemed to, as she smiled down at Aryll and patted her hair.

"Thank you, dear. It's nice to know you think I'm pretty."

"You should buy the dress, Miss Zelda, and wear it to the New Year's celebration." She nodded seriously.

"Ah..." she winced. "Wish I could, but we're five rupees short from buying the dress..."

Aryll simply looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled, dipping her hand in her pocket and pulling out a shiny coin.

"Now you're not!"

We all stared at the shining little girl who was proudly smiling, handing a coin of five rupees to Zelda.

The latter simply gasped, and smiled, taking the coin.

"You sure?"

"Yep!" she nodded enthusiastically. "But Link has to buy me ice cream when we get back to the village." She laughed.

"You didn't need to tell me that..." I sighed, amused.

"Alright!" Zelda suddenly jumped, apparently excited. "Thank you so much, Aryll!"

"You're welcome, Miss Zelda!" she laughed. "I have to go. My mom told me not to get lost, so I should go find her soon."

"Alright, thanks again, Aryll." I smiled.

When she was gone, though, I winced.

"Beaten by an eight-year old."

"More like OWNED by an eight-year old." Dark snickered.

"Okay, we should get going soon." I muttered. "Get out of that dress so that we can pay and go. I'm tired." I motioned at Zelda, who blushed.

"U-Um, yeah, I'll take it off right away." She then rushed into the changing cabin, slamming the door behind.

I threw her a surprised glance, then turned to my snickering friends.

"What did I say?"

"Nothing." Tetra laughed. "Absolutely nothing."

---

Later on, we'd all parted ways to go to our respective homes. Being already very dark outside, even if it was only about eight o'clock, we'd decided that would be all for today. Especially that the dark clouds had moved over the moon, announcing snow.

Of course, I still had to cook for the week, and the clothes needed washing. So I ditched Zelda, who immediately went up to sleep, her beautiful new dress under her arms, and headed down to the kitchen, setting down all I had bought.

I had started cooking, starting with a basic salad. I found myself cutting the tomatoes when Byrne walked in, leaning against the doorframe.

"May I help you?" I asked from where I was, putting all the chopped tomatoes into a bowl with chopped lettuce in it.

"You know we have important guests tonight, right?" he asked, not even blinking.

"Yep." I sighed.

"Father sent me to tell you. They need refreshments. By the sound of it, it's pretty important, and so they'll be long in there. They're in the meeting room." He muttered, sounding very bored.

"Kay, I'll be there soon. Thanks for the message." I sighed, leaving my cucumbers half-chopped and washing my hands in the sink.

"I'll be out tonight, if the old man asks." Byrne muttered, turning around. For once, he sounded... gentle? Could it be that the ever so stoic Byrne had warmed up to me?

"Sure." I smiled warmly at him. No matter how annoying he was, he was my first 'friend'. And I know that somewhere in that cold, proud attitude, lied deep down a nice, smiling young man.

He left in the second that followed, only leaving a _whooshing_ sound as a proof of his presence.

I turned around, looking at where he was standing, drying my hands with a towel. I had to tear my eyes away soon after, though, because I remembered the task at hand. Throwing the towel away, I headed for the liquor cabinet and bent down to get a full view on all the drinks we had.

"Now where did that bottle of rum go? I'm sure Dark didn't finish it last time he was here..."

---

I found myself walking the dark, creepy path up to the meeting room, a tray of drinks in my hands. That's the room in the secluded part of the house, made up of one big table, and many chairs around it. Cole used to have his important business meetings in here. It's been a long time it has been used, though.

For some reason, I felt the need to keep quiet, and so crept on quietly to the meeting room. The hallway was unusually dark, a single candle lighting up the entrance to the room.

I stopped in front of the said wooden door, breathing slowly and deeply. Not even a single creak came from the wooden planks under me, no matter how unused they were. Guess even they encouraged me to stay quiet.

In this much of a peaceful, quiet atmosphere, something's bound to be wrong.

I was about to knock, when I realized that this meeting was unlike Cole's previous meetings. In the ones before, he'd probably have loud, drunken arguments with his associates inside. This time, though, nothing was audible in the dead of the night. Very weird, if you ask me.

Curiosity took the better of me. I had to find out what they were discussing, for the sake of my sanity.

So I slowly bent down, using my tsuyosa to shush the clinking drinks and the creaking wood under my feet. Slowly, I bent over and stuck my ear to the wooden door, closing my eyes, willing all my chikara to rush to my ears. For a moment, I went deaf, then suddenly, faint voices reached my ear. They were whispering. And that caught more and more of my attention.

"Are you sure, Cole?" a rough voice I thought I'd heard before whispered.

"Yes, this plan is fail-proof." The familiar voice of my employer replied.

"I agree with Cole, for once. His plan does sound pretty good this time." Another unknown voice added into the conversation.

"Well I personally don't get a shit of what's goin' on." A female voice, surprisingly, rudely interrupted in a voice higher than the rest.

I wonder what this 'plan' is all about. Probably one of Cole's new ways to make more profit out of his terrain. But why would he need so many people to do that?

The sense of feeling guilty for eavesdropping set aside, I concentrated harder to hear better.

"You're such a moron. Someone please explain to her what the hell this entire thing is all about." The same unknown male voice sighed.

"I will, yet again, for the fifth time, if you two keep your voices down." The ominous, seemingly-familiar voice grunted.

"Shoot." The two previous voices, I realized now that sounded younger than the rest, simultaneously sighed.

I unconsciously leaned it, trying to catch every bit of the following conversation. Whatever this was about, it was terribly intriguing. And I'd kill myself before skipping out on any of this.

"Our primary goal is to open a path for the Holodrummians." He started.

A path for what? Towards where?

"They'll be coming over Great Bay, with many armed battleships, on the fourth month of the next year. That way, no one will be expecting a fully armed assault just when the snow starts melting, and the River defrosts."

Assault? What are they talking about? This is starting to freak me out...

"We'll have to get a breach in the border control, so that they can sneak into Hyrule's territory."

W-What? W-Why?

"And then, they'll easily infiltrate Hyrule, head for Central, and overthrow the government. Our job will be to attack the villages and burn them down, killing anyone who opposes us. That way, the Holodrummians will be able to take control of Hyrule without the Termineans not ever knowing. Also, more support will be brought to us through the Goron Branch, as the Labyrennians, who are a colony of Termina, have no choice but to attack as well. The Hylians will be cornered, and they'll lose the game."

There was a lapse of silence after his explanation, soft whispering sounds my panicked brain blocked out continuing in the room. I myself realized I was holding my breath. My brain suddenly came back into motion, analysing what I'd heard.

_Conspiracy..._

It was all my brain could think of. I gasped slightly, shaking. My control on my tsuyosa wavered, and in that moment of weakness, I dropped my platter.

A huge crash echoed around the empty hallway. Shards of glass splintered, the drinks spilling all over the wooden floor. The platter fell right next to me, making another loud noise as it stilled.

Terrified, I fell back on my butt, barely controlling my frantic breathing.

This... This is... This is what they've been planning all along? To help the Holodrummians take over Hyrule? W-Why?

Conspirators: people who are loyal to something on the outside, yet plot to overthrow it on the inside.

My brain gave me a quick definition of the word that couldn't stop ringing in my head.

That's when I realized the voices inside had stopped.

Someone suddenly got up and headed for the door, the heavy footsteps echoing in the tense silence.

The door suddenly opened with a creak, and my wide, fearful eyes were met with thundering yellow ones, glaring cruelly down at me.

I recognized the orange hair, combed back atop the olive-skinned man's head. His usual black garments adorned his already dark body, making him almost invisible, except for his orange hair. A heavy frown was showing on his lips.

"And just who are you?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"How long has he been there?" a slightly wavering female voice came from the inside.

"Don't know." My landlord replied.

And I stood, frozen, looking up like a scared deer, at the one who owned all the land I had to work on.

Ganondorf.

I couldn't will myself to say the name of Zelda's future husband. In these circumstances, he looked much more threatening than he usually did.

"Is that the kid?" Cole's voice suddenly asked. Ganondorf moved away to show Cole, glaring daggers at me. Oh shit. I was in trouble now.

"Mhm." Ganondorf muttered.

"Oh..." Cole's expression suddenly softened, and he gave me one of his rare smiles.

I slackened in front of his disarming smile, usually a sign that I'd done a good job.

"Hey there. What brings you here at this time of the night, Link?" he asked in a gentle, caring voice.

I dropped my guard, staring at him, as if entranced by his smile. Maybe this was all a dream. I do remember collapsing on the way home... So maybe I was just dreaming.

I was about to get up and apologize, and take my sentence as it was, when my frantic brain finally registered what I'd heard.

My 'deer-in-front-of-freakin-hunters' expression came back to me as I quickly processed my employer's words.

"Y-You." I finally stuttered out, slowly pointing my finger at him. "Y-You said my name."

"And what of it, Link?" he continued with his fake smile.

"Y-You've never said my name before!" I screamed terrified. "It's always 'kid'! Or 'brat'! Never Link! Something must be wrong if you said my name!"

His frown suddenly fell as he bit his lip.

"Shit."

Finally snapping out of my trance, I gasped and jumped off, immediately breaking into a run for the front door. I had to tell someone about this.

"I'll summon tracker Sheikahs. They'll pursue and kill him in no time." I heard before I jumped down a flight of stairs, the adrenaline pumping in my veins making me oblivious to the pain I would have felt on an ordinary day.

Knowing there were trackers on my trail, I guess I had no choice but to disregard my shoes and warmer clothes as I simply opened the door and ran out.

As soon as I got outside, I was assailed by a harsh wind carrying snow. I bit my lip in annoyance for a second, then remembered that my life was on the line.

With that, I took off as fast as I could.

I just jumped onto the first tree when I felt unknown tsuyosa ambushing me. Damn. They already caught onto my trail.

But right now, I was up against Master Sheikahs, the highest level of Sheikah there was before of Village Leader. I couldn't use subtlety. Time to flee, run away. A true coward runs away every time, but a smart man knows just when to run. This was one of those times. I couldn't tell if I was considered a coward or a smart man in this situation.

In any case, I ran.

My hot, frantic breaths came in pants, turning into a white blur with the contact of the freezing air. It was already starting to lose the feeling on my toes, fingers and the tip of my nose. Maybe I should have taken the time to grab a coat at least. Would keep me from dying of cold out here.

I spotted the crossroads to Sheik's and Dark's house a bit further away.

For a moment, I considered heading to Sheik's or Dark's for refuge.

But then realized that not only would I put them and their families in unnecessary danger of death, but I'd also accomplish nothing as we'd be two Novices against a bunch of Masters.

No. I couldn't go for my friends. They had to stay out of this one. I had to go for something higher, more powerful...

Muratate.

I decided quickly, heading straight forward, towards the Village Hidden in the Blades of Grass. I had to seek the aid of the Muratate. Not only was she a really good Sheikah, but I could tell her everything I had heard. She'd know how to treat the urgent information.

Something suddenly whizzed past my head as I dived in for a foothold on a lower branch. I gasped, turning around, and spotting Sheikahs, dressed completely in black, with black scarves flying behind them, something metal glinting in their folded arms.

Well great. Now they've got weapons too.

A bunch of metal shurikens whizzed past my head as my breath hitched. They were trying to either get a good shot and kill me with those, or at least slow me down.

I had to be careful. These guys weren't kidding. They really WERE aiming for a kill.

I could spot the towers of the village up ahead. I was almost there. I was so caught up in my momentary joy that I suddenly gasped as something embedded into my shoulder. The cold reality came crashing back to me as I felt warm blood dripping down my left arm, my usual arm. I raised my right hand and gently touched my shoulder, feeling the cold metal of a shuriken embedded deep into my shoulder.

I bit my lip, tears running down my eyes, the warm liquids exiting my body becoming cold as the snow whizzed past my frozen body. I swear I could not feel my feet anymore, as well as my face. My hands were next.

The trees whizzed past in a bunch of white, green, and brown blurs. In the distance, I spotted the entrance to the village. At this hour of the night, no one stood on patrol duty. I think that's something they should think of remedying. I could really use some help right now.

I suddenly lost footing as I felt the trees ending. I gasped as I fell, and landed with a thud. Though the adrenaline quickly rushed back into my veins as I rolled and jumped back up, feeling my assailants closer than ever on my trail. More shuriken and kunai whizzed past me.

I was quickly approaching my destination. The shadows of the residents' houses blurred past me as I ducked into them, giving me an extra boost towards the Muratate's tree house. Almost there.

I could almost feel the trackers breathing on my neck. Every movement they made, I felt in a brush of hard wind. It was... terrifying, to say the least.

I finally got to the ladder that led up to the Muratate's house. Using all the tsuyosa I had left, I cleared it in one jump, and immediately started knocking at her door as soon as I reached the top.

"Answer, answer!" I muttered, hearing my own raw voice plead, the rushing, cold wind blowing my hair and loose garments around.

The adrenaline slowly wore off, making me conscious of the pain in my shoulder and the cold whizzing all around me. I slowly started feeling dizzy, the wooden door I kept knocking on becoming blurry before straightening out again.

I was horrified when I heard clanking on the wooden deck behind me. They were here.

I turned around, fearing what I'd see.

I simply saw three Sheikahs dressed in complete black, brandishing kunai. My breathing became shallower as my frantic knocks got faster.

The three Sheikahs suddenly to closer, raising their kunai. I gasped, looking up, distinguishing my fearful expression in the glinting metal of the kunai.

"Stop!" I screamed, terrified, at a loss of words. Something else than adrenaline suddenly pumped through me, and I waved my hand out just as they plunged their kunai down at me.

A green aura suddenly lit up around the hand I swung, pushing the three Sheikah back, easily breaking their kunai into tiny little pieces that clanked on the wooden deck.

I gasped, faintly wondering what the hell I had just done, looking at the three Masters, who were holding their sides, obviously hurt.

I could not process further because the three Sheikah jumped again, apparently dead set in completing their missions. This time, I froze in fear. Whatever I did, I couldn't do it again, that's for sure.

So this is the end, huh?

As they got closer, drawing their spare kunai, I felt like I was falling. My legs must have given out. Too cold for me anyway.

I'm sorry, Sheik, Dark, Midna, Tetra...

Zelda...

The door suddenly slammed open, an ominous chikara radiating from in front of it. I suddenly felt something squishy under me, as I crashed down into someone's arms. I found the strength to gaze up weakly at my saviour, and saw emerald hair dripping down on my face.

I turned my attention at the battle-poised Sheikahs. The Muratate growled, warning them non-verbally.

The Sheikahs must have taken the hint, because they glanced at each other, and retreated in the shadows, heading off.

There was a small silence, as the Muratate made sure they were gone, before her attention turned down to me.

"Link? What's going on? Why were they chasing you?" I saw a small glint of fear in her eyes, which disappeared shortly after.

"L-Let's talk inside. I'm freezing." I muttered weakly.

"Right." She nodded and swooped me off from under my feet, carrying me bridal style inside.

Once inside, she put me down next to the fireplace, running to get a blanket. She came back and draped it over my shoulders. No matter what, I still felt cold everywhere, and numb. I couldn't even move.

"I'll get you some tea." She informed me, leaving.

I was left alone with the raging fire in the fireplace, and the wind howling outside. Close call. I made it, too. I feel... so proud of myself right now.

My mind fell silent until Lady Midori came back, two mugs of tea in her hands, a first aid kit in the other. She kneeled down next to me, handing me the hot drink.

"Thank you." I whispered under my breath, barely able to hold my mug up.

"Let me see that injury of yours. It looks pretty deep." She gently pulled the blanket off, immediately spotting my bloodied shoulder.

I simply winced as she pulled the shuriken out, muttering a simple apology. I didn't respond. My brain was much too fried. I felt like... a freakin vegetable...

"There." She finished bandaging my wound. "I closed it with my healing technique, so it should be fine for now." She informed me.

"Thank you." I muttered.

"So mind telling me why you crashed into my house in the middle of the night, wounded and" she touched my lips. I can say I didn't feel a thing. "slightly hypothermic? Surely, it wasn't one of your thrills to run around in the snow without your clothes, chased by Sheikahs bound to kill you." She snickered sarcastically.

"It's a long story." I sighed, sipping some of my tea.

"The night is still young." She simply replied.

"Alright..." I sighed, recollecting my memories. "Tonight, I had to serve refreshments to Cole, who had an important meeting. I eavesdropped unintentionally, and heard they were planning a conspiracy behind our backs. I panicked and dropped my drinks, alerting my presence. I had to escape then to carry the news to you, with three Masters on my tail. I barely got here in time." I sighed. "Thank you for saving me."

"No problem." She frowned. "Tell me everything about this conspiracy you mentioned."

"They were pretending, all this time." I started, emotionless. My nerves weren't responding anymore. "They pretended to be loyal to the Hylian government, while they were allied with Holodrum and Labyrennu all this time. Their mission was to make a safe entrance into Hyrule for the Holodrummians, who would come here in battle ships. Then, assisted by Holodrum's colony, Labyrennu, to our south, they were gonna converge towards Central, where they'd overthrow the government and take control of our country." I sniffled, feeling the fear I felt hearing those words rushing back up to me.

"Shit." The Muratate bit her lip. "I'll have to inform someone." She put two fingers to her heart and closed her eyes. I faintly felt a pulse of chikara emanating from her, and suddenly, a man with a mask covering his lower face, and a bandana over his left eye appeared from in the ground. I flinched, never having seen a technique like that before.

"You called, My Lady?" the man spoke in a deep tone.

"Yes. I have urgent news that need to be delivered immediately to the governor in Central. You go on ahead, I will send two more ESA after you." She pointed at a scroll on a nearby desk, and it came flying to her.

She bit her finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto the parchment. She then closed her eyes, and the blood became letters, a text explaining the information. The text then retreated back into the drop of blood. I guess that technique was made to keep intercepted information from being discovered.

She followed my rolling the scroll and making a line with her blood to seal it. The ESA quickly grabbed it and bowed before disappearing back into the floor.

The Muratate repeated the gesture with the fingers on her heart, calling two more ESA forth. They did not appear, though, so I figured she sent them a mental mission briefing.

She then turned to me and smiled.

"It's okay. You're safe now. Thanks to you, we avoided a crisis that could have blown our entire country off the map. You're a hero, Link."

I ignored her kind words and instead fixed the place where the ESA had disappeared.

"An ESA..." I blinked, surprised. "Thought they were myths. Guess they're real, after all."

"Yep. Elite Sheikah Agents. A class of secret Sheikahs who work directly under me. They're given ruthless missions, and are the best of the best among ordinary Sheikah. They work in the shadows, and never come out in daylight, at least, not in public. Don't worry. That information is in safe hands now. It'll get to the governor by tomorrow morning." She explained.

"Yeah..." I simply muttered.

There was another awkward silence before she got up.

"You look pretty shaken. I'll call Sheik and Dark. They'll obviously do a much better job at comforting you than I will." She smiled.

"Ah... uhh..." I blushed lightly, but before I knew it, she was gone.

I sighed, left alone to myself in the darkness. I clutched my blanket tighter, my stiff members begging to get some sleep.

---

I was woken just as I was about to fall into a deep slumber. I shook my head, trying to get my vision to clear. Two pairs of hands suddenly grabbed me, and vaguely wondered who they belonged to.

"Link?"

"Shit man, what happened to you?"

I blinked, Sheik's and Dark's concerned faces coming into focus.

"N-Nothing of importance." I stuttered weakly.

"Yeah, not important my ass. It was so unimportant that we received an urgent mental message to rush here because you were in trouble." Sheik crossed his arms sarcastically.

"Yeah, so unimportant that I had to work my ass off to get out of bed without waking Midna." Dark imitated Sheik.

There was an awkward silence, then Sheik and I looked at each other, and back at Dark incredulously.

He noticed our gazes, and cocked his head, then seemed to realize what we were surprised for.

"We weren't doing anything!" he blushed, looking down. His childish attitude was what made me crack a smile. It was getting warmer now, and all I felt like doing was get some sleep.

The Muratate suddenly walked in and looked down at all three of us.

"Alright, well, I found a bunch of free Apprentices, so they'll be going to your house to investigate and pursuit, since they've probably all escaped." She informed us. "Thanks to you, Link, we can prevent a national crisis." She repeated.

My best friends looked at each other confusedly, then looked at me crossly.

"You never told us that, Link."

"Yeah, Link, you never told us you were a hero."

"Well, now you know, and my secret is out." I laughed quietly.

"What did you do this time, oh great Hero?" Dark laughed. I shrugged, catching the Muratate's cautious gaze. Wondering why she had that worried look in her eyes, I turned back to Dark to complete my shrug.

"I caught onto a conversation between Cole and Ganondorf. Basically, it's a conspiracy with the Holodrummians, and they're planning to overthrow the Hylian government in Central to take control of Hyrule and use it as they please-"

"That's why!" Lady Midori suddenly cut in. "That's why they're doing it!"

"What? Why? Who?" Sheik asked.

"The Holodrummians! There's a war going on between the Termineans and the Holodrummians right now! They're equally matched thanks to Labyrennu and Hyrule! But if they lose their main source of provisions, weapons and warriors, Termina will surely lose! Two birds with one stone!" she made out. "Shit, the ESA has to be about halfway there by now. No time to send another one to inform the governor of this conclusion. Hopefully, he'll be able to make it himself..." she bit her lip.

"Don't worry. Our governor's a smart man. He'll figure it out." Dark comforted.

"Yeah, hope so..." the Muratate of the Blades of Grass sighed.

"But it's all okay now, right? Everyone knows what they're planning, and the conspirators aren't dumb enough to complete their plan now." I cocked my head to the side innocently.

"Yeah... Everything should be resolved as soon as the governor receives my message." She nodded.

Another silence fell between us. I felt like sleeping. I'd almost made it, too, when an Apprentice Sheikah burst in through the front door. I growled, as I'd almost succeeded in finally getting some sleep.

"Lady Muratate." He called in an urgent voice.

"What is it?" she turned and glared at the newcomer.

"The house you sent us to investigate. All our targets have left it. One part of the team, accompanied by our best trackers, was sent after the trail of the fleeing enemies. The rest of us are back at the house." He reported.

"Anything else to report?" she asked.

"Yes. It seems that the targets have covered their tracks well. The house is currently under a magically-induced fire. Our members are trying to extinguish it with tsuyosa-filled water, but it's not exactly working. Asides that, everything's normal."

"Good. Go assist your team now." The Muratate ordered.

"Yes Ma'am." The Sheikah nodded, bowed, and jumped out of the door, a gust of wind closing it after him. "Everything's under control now. Thanks again, Link." She smiled at me.

"No problem, M'Lady." I muttered, tired.

Everything would be alright now. Everything was under control.

A peaceful smile came to my lips. I closed my eyes, feeling he soothing feeling of satisfaction washing over me.

The wind outside was all I could hear for the moment, asides from the breathing of the occupants of the room.

Something suddenly flashed. I sprung up, new adrenaline coursing through me. My friends and the Muratate called my name, but I didn't pay attention. I slammed the door open and jumped down in a panicked frenzy, hurriedly travelling towards my house.

"HOLY FUCK! ZELDA!"

*************

**Author's Note:**

**Yet another fail-hanger :D Ehm... cliff-hanger xD**

**With this chapter, my Word Count went up to... 30 999 words O_o I felt so... weird, having 30 999 words O_o So I added a random word somewhere. YEY, OFFICIALLY 31 000 WORDS! xD**

**RESPECT THE EMO CORNER. It's a dark corner I crouch in when I'm feeling emo. SO RESPECT IT! :D**

**Classes of Sheikahs... Well, at the beginning, you're a student in Sheikah school. When you graduate, you become a Novice. When you get good enough to take the next test, you go for Apprentice. Long, hard years of training later, you can take a test to become a Master. If you're expectionally skilled, the Muratate can ask you if you'd like to join de ESA. They're a bunch of super-ninjasss :D If not, you have to stop at Master rank, unless you aim to be a Muratate (village leader). Basically, it's Naruto's system of "Academy student- Genin- Chuunin- Jounin- (ANBU Black Ops)- Kage".**

**The first part was a pain. The second part was a breeze ^_^ I've been wanting to write that for an eternity :D**

**Any shots at who the conspirators are? :3 When the cover comes out, most of you will realize :D I'm currently colouring it, and it's a pain, so hold your horses.**

**On the matter of fanart, though, I did make fail-art... ehm... FANart on the chase scene :D You can find it on my fansite, www(dot)zeldafanfics(dot)webs(dot)com. In the "Photos" section. A direct link is on my profile :3**

**Also, another note for Naruto. It's short, I promise. And I forgot... When I remember, I'll update :D**

**Anyways, thanks for sticking with me! Seeya next time! Pleeeeeeaaaaaassssseeeeeee revieeeeeew! (Cause it was my birthday on February 22! :D So please review as a belated birthday present! ^_^)**

--------- Next time on History Won't Repeat Itself-----------

_Link: Goddamnit, Zelda, PLEASE don't die on me! You're my everything! I can't let you go! Please don't die!_

_Sheik: It's over, Link. You have to let her go..._

_Link: NO! I CAN'T! I JUST CAN'T!!! *green tsuyosa flares*_

_Dark: What's with that tsuyosa?_

_Muratate: Oh shit._

_Next time: My tsuyosa owns yours._


	5. My tsuyosa owns yours

**Author's Notes:**

**Well, here you go. This is the product of too much writer's block, in addition of severe writer's demotivation. I think I'm more eager to write for Naruto than for Zelda right now *ducks as two goats, three buses, six wrenches, and one old lady are thrown at her* PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! JUST READ, AND TAKE YOUR ANGER OUT ON YOUR REVIEW, OKAY, RIGHT PLEASE? *cowers behind a rock***

****************

I couldn't even feel myself breathing as I soared through the trees faster than I had ever travelled before. Nothing mattered right now. Not the cold under my bare feet, or my t-shirt flapping, covered in snow. Just the beatings of my frantic heart. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. After all, nothing happened, so what's the point in crying? Nothing to cry about has happened...

Right?

Those thoughts simply seemed to bring the tears closer to spilling. I fervently wished I could somehow go faster. Goddamn my Sheikah rank. I needed to get into some serious training soon. And take the Apprentice exam sometime soon.

Later... That'll all come later. Right now, the object of my life is trapped in a burning house. Why am I thinking about my future when hers could be right about over right now?

"Stop!" I screamed, shaking my head, almost missing my next jump.

Through the snow-covered trees, I could spot a column of smoke rising into the star-less night sky. My heart lurched just by seeing it.

The way there seemed to last forever. With every step I took, my heartstrings pulled tighter. I landed in a layer of thick snow in front of the burning house just as a beam fell with a cracking noise, the sound of the crackling fire seemingly all there was in my ears. I couldn't hear much of the frantic shouts around me, and the sound of rushing water as Sheikahs tried to extinguish the tsuyosa-induced fire.

"Z-Zel." I whispered, quickly willing my frozen legs to move. I slowly moved towards the house, the arm of a Sheikah stopping me.

"Don't get near, kid, it's dangerous." A Sheikah about a year or two older than me warned.

I stayed there for a moment, watching the house burn with a horrified awe, then quickly snapped out and slapped his hand away.

"MOVE!" I screamed dashing for the burning house. I had to save Zelda, no matter how dangerous it got.

"Hey!" I barely heard the Sheikah's exclamation, my hearing locked out as I dashed into the remains of a burning house.

I quickly stepped on a spot where the fire hadn't gotten to yet, looking around. A beam fell behind me, blocking my way out and alerting me of the gravity of the situation. Dancing flames licked the wooden walls, destroying everything left in their wake. Somehow, I had to find Zelda.

She was sleeping in her room last time I checked. I should check there.

Holding my breath, I jumped over a mass of flames, and, spotting the stairs, made a mad dash for it, practically jumping over all the crumbled steps.

I found it really funny that I headed for Zelda's room on reflex, even if I couldn't tell much with the fire burning everything down. But with the way those flames were licking and burning everything down, I hoped that was the only place I was gonna have to look.

My hopes died down when I slammed the half-burnt door open, only to find no traces of her in the now-charred bedroom.

"Shit." I bit my lip, running back out, just as a falling plank blocked my way into Zelda's room.

I jumped back down, thinking of where she could have done. Beads of sweat were sliding down the sides of my face, and it was already getting harder to breathe.

I kept running around until I slid into the living room, and saw her lying face down on the ground.

"Zelda!" I screamed, inhaling some smoke at the same time. Starting to cough horribly, I ran to her side.

I was just about there when the foundations of the house finally crumbled, and with a horrible crackling sound, the entire roof started crumbling all over us.

Gritting my teeth, I made one last jump towards Zelda, and, grabbing her and hiding her under my body, I rolled, and barely had time to draw another breath before a log fell over me. I quickly crumbled as more and more accumulated themselves over Zelda and I. Wishing for it to end soon, I simply hugged her closer and pushed her below me as I saw the light of the fading fire disappearing from view.

---

I felt it safe enough when I felt the environment cool down around me. Voices were screaming outside, and I figured that the fact that they were so close meant that one, the fire had been extinguished, and two, they were looking for us.

Deciding to give them a helping hand in that task, I made an effort to push the piled planks off of me. Grunting in pain and effort, I finally pushed them off, my eyes immediately meeting the calm, starry sky.

"There he is!" a girl announced.

Panting, I dropped back down, checking on Zelda. She didn't have any visible wounds, and her chest wasn't moving up and down like it was supposed to, and she didn't seem to have broken-

...

Sometimes, I surprise myself with my own stupidity.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" I cursed, immediately putting my cheek next to her pale lips. No breath flowed on them. "Oh god, Zelda, please don't die on me." I pleaded, and as tears started coursing down my cheeks, I realized that even I knew the answer to that plea.

"Link!" Sheik and Dark screamed from behind me, but I didn't even bother turning.

"Please Zelda. Please wake up, and laugh, telling me you were holding your breath on purpose." I pleaded, slowly pulling her closer to my chest.

I wish the beatings of my frantic heart would split between her and me. I had too many per minute, and was willing to share. But it didn't seem to work that way as my helpless tears just splashed on her cheeks, rolling down the sides of her face. I think that wherever she is right now... she's crying too.

Burying my face in her golden hair, now straight and lifeless, I breathed into the faint odour of roses, beautiful flowers that were now dead in the middle of the burnt field and wood. She was gone, and nothing was going to make her come back.

Releasing my sobs, I screamed, my heart aching like it had never ached before. It hurt like it had never hurt before, but thing is, my only wounds were a couple of burns and cuts on my back. What is this pain? What is this suffering, this agony in the core of my very soul? Why does it hurt so much?

Not even letting my grip drop, I mentally hit myself. If only I had been smarter. If I hadn't dropped my platter, none of this would have happened. If I wasn't so weak, this would NEVER have happened. If I had been there five minutes earlier, I could have saved her. I would still have her by my side if I wasn't such a weakling.

A goddamn weakling. A loser. A failure. That's what I am.

I think I'm so high and mighty? No, I'm not. Why would I be? I couldn't even save the life of one of my closest friends. Who am I kidding, acting like the hero who saved the country? How the hell did I save this country if I could even SAVE THE GIRL WHO GAVE ME A REASON TO LIVE!?

Deciding to toughen up a little, I slowly put her down on the charred planks of wood, trying to stop the tears that were steadily dripping on her pale face. But at the sight of those eyes that would never open again, I couldn't help but start sobbing again. I slowly and shakily took her hands into my own, and squeezed them, feeling the literally cold reality rushing through me.

The Zelda I knew and loved was gone. She had been asphyxiated in a fire. A fire that I created, and that I could have avoided too, if I had been stronger. I would never see her smile again. I would never smell her hair again. I would never touch her silky skin again. I would never hear her crystalline laughter again. All that I had left of her was this _thing_ in front of me. This mere shell of her true self. A shell that I imposed on her because of my own weaknesses.

She was dead and gone.

"It can't be!" I screamed out loud. "You can't go yet! There are so many things you have yet to see! You can't leave this all behind!" I screamed, more tears dripping on her pale face. No matter what the others around me thought of me, I had to say something, under the risk of me never finding my voice again.

I squeezed again, and I squeezed so hard that my hands hurt. Horrified by the consequences of my act, I finally doubled over and threw up bile. Salty tears mixed in with the gelatinous transparent stuff as I fell over by her side, never letting her cold hand go.

"Link, that's enough. We should get you checked out. And.... We have to go organize a proper burial ceremony for Zelda." The Muratate's gentle voice resonated in my ears from somewhere around me, but her voice came in from one ear, and immediately came out from the other.

"Zelda..." I whispered, closing my eyes, and wishing that this was all a dream. But the cold reality was still present, as her cold hand was present in my hot palm.

I laid there for what seemed like forever to me, then squeezed her hand one more time, fervently praying that something, a miracle, would happen, and bring her back to life. But everyone knows miracles don't happen.

"They will if you believe..."

"Huh?" I asked faintly.

"Link, you're obviously in shock. I didn't even say anything. Let's go, we can't risk losing you either." Lady Midori's gentle voice called.

"No..." I shook my head weakly. "Get away."

"Wha-"

"GET AWAY!" I roared, finally snapping my eyes open. You could imagine how surprised _I_ was when I saw everything through a veil of green.

I didn't have time to do anything else because next thing I heard was the Muratate screaming and something hitting the ground further away from me. Gasps and screams followed, but all I could hear was the beating of my own frantic heart.

The heat accumulated at the end of my palm, the one I held Zelda's hand with, and suddenly left it. I wondered what the hell happened when another heat appeared in my closed fist. And guess what. This time, it wasn't any kind of chikara. It was real, human heat.

Unbearable joy exploded in my heart. I started breathing quicker as more tears of joy coursed down my cheeks. I don't know what's happening, or what the hell I did, but I sure as hell don't want it to stop now.

I slowly pushed myself up on my knees, never letting Zelda go. I don't know if it was my weird vision, or a real fact, but Zelda's body, as well as mine, were glowing green.

I slowly slid my free hand under her, and, coursing my other one over her body to avoid letting her go, I did the same with my other hand. Once done, I slowly lifted her up, and closer to me. I didn't think my heart would ever be able to keep up its beatings at this pace. My heartbeats might as well go 1000 per minute.

Pushing the thoughts, voices, people, and actions aside, I finally closed the gap between us, and the shining crescent moon above was one of the only ones to witness my very first kiss.

Our lips met, even if she did so without knowing. I gently pecked her once, but, as soon as I did, I felt my heartstrings pulling, my brain demanding more. Like an addicting drug I simply had to take, I leaned in for a second, fuller kiss this time. It didn't go on for long, because right in the middle, I felt my head spinning, and my vision blurring. The heat all around my body stopped, and all my members went cold, except for my hand. At least it was still warm.

Not finding enough strength to hold her -or me, for that matter- up, I dropped her, and instantly fell over her. That seemed to do it as she suddenly broke into a fit of unconscious coughing. I wish I could smile, but I couldn't even move anymore.

"She's alive!"

"Someone get a medic, we need to stabilize her condition, NOW!"

I couldn't even sigh in relief as I heard that, because I felt darkness egging at the back of my mind, threatening to swallow me up very soon, too soon, if you ask me.

"Just what did that kid do!?"

"I don't know... Lady Muratate seems to know..."

"She looks worried..."

I couldn't even wonder what they meant by that, and frankly, I didn't care right now, because nothing else mattered in the world.

Only the fact that Zelda was alive, and the fact that I needed some goddamn sleep.

With that, I closed my eyes, and fulfilled both of my wishes at once.

---

Why are lights so bright? Whoever had the dumb idea to make lights so bright? Especially hospital lights. Seriously. Why_ white_, and not blue, or something darker?

Oh right, they're lights.

Groaning as a hard headache hit me straight in the face as I woke up, I rubbed my head and pushed myself up in a sitting position. Thank you for the nice 'welcome back to life, asshole' gift, Mother Nature.

I briefly wondered where I was when the door suddenly slid open, and Lady Midori ran in.

"Lady Midori." I croaked out. "Hi there." I simply greeted, not fully awake yet.

"I came as soon as I sensed your tsuyosa. Are you feeling okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Yeah, just a headache..." I muttered, shaking my head.

"Here. Take these." She handed me some pills from my bedside. I took them and swallowed them without water. They tasted like lemons. I like lemons. "They should make you feel better." She smiled gently.

Now that I do see her, I think I like her necklace. It's turquoise, a very pretty stone, with two pearls on each side. I wonder what it's for. And there's a strand of green hair in front of her face. I wonder if she'll notice it.

"Link, you're not focused." The Muratate suddenly growled.

"I totally am." I muttered.

"No you're not. What did I just say?"

"Link, you're not paying attention."

"No, I said _Link, you're not focused."_

"Same thing..." I growled, sliding back down.

"Not the same thing." She sighed. "I'll call for some antibiotics. The shock you went in must have messed up your brain signals." She sighed, and put her hands over her heart. Weird, I couldn't even sense the pulse of chikara that was supposed to radiate from her.

But now that I think of it, that veil around her shoulders compliments her hair... I think it's the same shade, unless it's one shade lighter...

"Link..."

"Yeah, uh, shock, you were saying?" I asked, trying to sound focused.

"Yes. Right after you finished the job you did on Zelda, you collapsed. You were hyperventilating, exhausted, had burns and cuts on your back, and were in shock, to top it all." She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"Right..." my eyes diverted to her earrings. What a pretty gold colour... And I like their shape... "Wait." I shook my head to clear the blurs. "How's Zelda?" I asked.

"She's in the next room, recovering. As soon as you.... somehow revived her, the medics stabilized her condition, and all she needed was rest. Both of you have been out like lights for about a week now." She informed me.

"Good to hear..." her blue dress reminded me of Zelda's. It was so fine, so delicate, that I- "And I have a question..." I sighed out. "What's with that chikara? I've never felt anything like it. It feels weird, like someone else was living inside of me." I commented.

"I-I can't tell you..." the Muratate sighed sadly.

"Please, you have to! It's my body, I want to know!" I pleaded.

She hesitated for a moment, fidgeting nervously. I crossed my fingers and bit my lip, hoping she'd accept.

"Fine. But listen closely. This is very hard info to digest. Take it slowly, okay?" she advised me.

"Yes! Okay!" I smiled, nodding. My eyes were drawn to her nails as she started explaining.

Wow.... Such a pretty purple colour... Deep purple. Like Zelda's eyes. And her bracelet. It's so shiny. I wanna buy Zelda one like that. Maybe Lady Midori will tell me where she got it. But what if it was a gift? No matter. I'll try to find something like that next time I go to the Hidden Underground Village. It might not be the same, but any jewellery is pretty on Zelda. It just compliments her face, you know?

Oh, and that skirt! It looks like it's made out of silk. And it's pure white. I wonder what she uses to clean it, I mean, since it's such a pearly white colour. It should have been at least a creamy colour by now, considering she's Muratate and all.

I wonder if the job of Muratate is boring. I mean, you get to sit behind a desk all day long and do paperwork. Do you even go on missions if you're Muratate? I guess if she did, she'd have to go on Ultra Rank missions only. Master Sheikahs can take care of everything up until there.

But I don't think she goes on missions, though. After all the measures taken to protect the Muratate of every Hidden Village, I don't think they'd get sent on missions like that.

"And now, do you understand?" Lady Midori sighed.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Completely! Totally understood!" I grinned nervously, wondering what the hell she was talking about. Oh damn, that's right, she was supposed to explain to me what that tsuyosa was. "Umm... What was I supposed to understand?" I chuckled nervously.

"Link, you IDIOT!" she growled.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I apologized, covering my head with my arms. Why are all women so scary?

"Fine, I'll say this again, but just one more time, oka-"

"Lady Muratate!"

A Master ran into the room.

"It's time to leave. We have to go now if we want to make it on time to the High Central Village Council." He told her.

"Fine." She then turned to me. "Just stay in bed, and get plenty of rest. I'll be back in a couple of days, max. Don't exert yourself. I have my best nurses on you, so if you need anything, press on that button there. And please." She looked into my eyes and smirked. "Try not to get distracted by the empty, white walls."

"Fine then." I huffed, outraged in a way.

"Sheik and Dark should be coming to visit soon. You will even be able to see Zelda soon, too. Just stay in bed and get some sleep until then." She advised.

"But what about my story? What's that weird chikara all about!?" I protested.

"I'll tell you when I get back. For now, I have to go. Good bye, Link."

And with that, she and the Master disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sighing, I rolled my eyes and laid back.

I wonder what that chikara was. I mean, it was faded green, and normal tsuyosa is supposed to be faded yellow. It has to be some kind of special chikara, I just know it. Cool, I have something weird inside my body.

Just let me think of what that could be. Everyone knows something I don't, so maybe if I dig around enough, I can get some info out of someone... And maybe even-

Oh look, a fly on the wall! Now that I think of it, the white walls are very pretty. They're like the white lights blinding me. Whose idea was it to invent white lights, anyway?

***********

**Author's Notes:**

**"YOU CALL THIS AN UPDATE!? ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME OR SOMETHING!? COME ON, YOU'RE SUCH A JOKE!" I'm sorry if that's what you're yelling at the computer right now. Because that's what I'm yelling, anyway.**

**ADD, what a beautiful thing. Actually, what Link is doing is what I do every day in class. Especially math. Algebra kills.**

**Okay, okay, extremely short update. Do I have virtual fever? No. Am I sick? No. Am I demotivated? Like hell, YES. This is just one of those times where I just wanna sit down, read some good fanfiction, eat chocolate, go weight myself, complain that I'm fat, and go do my ninja training to compensate. The life of an ordinary teenage girl. (Because yes, I'm a ninja-in-training, but no one will believe me, so at this point, it's just me and my fencing teacher against the world. He's teaching me how to do a half-catwheel immediately followed by a half-jump. I'm not a gymnast, but hey, it's better than nothing :3)**

**So I completely failed my french and spanish oral presentations, and have 5 exams this week. I finished the second one today. Three to go! And I can barely wait for Thursday, because the next episode of Shippuuden comes out! *squeeeeeee* Though it's not AS exciting anymore because Deidara's dead T_T**

**And those are my alibis. And Writer's Block, too. Cannot forget my bestest friend ever *starts crying in a corner***

**Yeah, anyway, I know this chapter was a major disappointment, but hey, it had ZeLink! It's like an important filler- Wait, screw that, no fillers are ever important.**

**I would have killed Zelda, too, and I seriously gave it a thought, but then realized that the story would have to stop there if I did. So I kept myself from doing anything... irrational.**

**Anyway, thank you for putting up with my useless ranting. I'm so glad you guys keep reading this story, but it's such a major disappointment to me too. I can't believe I'm letting you all down. I promise I'll keep working harder and harder, and next time, have a longer chapter to compensate. I'm really sorry, once again, and if your conscience allows you to, could you please drop a review? Please?**

**I love you all :3**

_-------Next time, on History Won't Repeat Itself-----------_

_Sheik: So what happens now?_

_Muratate: I'll train you guys. If we want to be ready for any more potential assault, we'll need all the Sheikah we can get. _

_Dark: Does this mean you'll be our teacher from now on?_

_Muratate: For the next month, yes._

_Link: And what's our goal...?_

_Muratate: ... The Apprentice Admission Exam._

_Next time: What now?_


	6. What Now?

**Author's Notes:**

**I'm not dead. I know, I surprise myself too, sometimes. Something IS dead, though. My motivation to write Zelda stories. A moment of silence, please.**

**...**

**Now that the moment of silence is done, my real A/N's. I'm hardly qualified to talk to you guys anymore like I know you or something. I feel like I've let every single reader down by not updating this for -what, 4 months now-? I wish I could say I'm sorry, but I can't say it. I mean, it won't do anything. Five letters won't change all the guilt in my heart for letting you down like this. But if you ARE a person who believes in those five meningless letters, then I am terribly horribly completely surely hugely greatly sorry for not updating for so long.**

**That being out of the way, how have you guys been these last few months? I've been good, got sick 4 times, including right now, got in a car crash, hurt my mom's wallet more than myself, failed a math exam, but I'm sure I passed my year-end math exam with over 90 percent, and what else? Basically, that's it. Been having fun, writing a lot for Naruto, making and perfecting my bestie's and my cosplays for Otakuthon2010, watching Soul Eater because it's such an amazing anime, playing Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, and yeah, been goofing a lot. How about you guys?**

**As for my stories. Guys, my first Naruto story has over 230 reviews. I am... speechless, to say the least. And I kinda regret that even after 32 Zelda stories (4 of which were actually good enough to be reviewed xDD) I've never passed the 150 review mark.**

**But in any case, I'm not complaining. You guys are the best fans ever, and I could not have asked for better. That rhymes :3 And I love you all. Which is why, after so many months of Writer's Block, I finally spouted something out. It's disappointing, I know that more than anyone else, but I couldn't do better. I am sorry. Please forgive me if I've gotten a little rusty. This will never change the fact that I love and cherish you all (:**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Sheik and Dark dropped in to see me a little later on. They explained to me in detail all the things that had happened during the time I saved Zelda. I was really surprised, actually. So I have the power to bring people back to life? Sweeeet. I must be a god or something.

Later on, Sheik and Dark left to go finish up their chores. The nurse also came in and gave me painkillers for my aching head. Now, I felt all sleepy and stuff. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back on my feet by tomorrow.

I was just about to doze off when suddenly, I heard the door sliding open. I slowly turned my head and watched the blurry door as it slid open. A blond head suddenly poked in, purple eyes scouting the room. They widened when they spotted me looking back at them.

"Link!"

A gasp came from behind the door, and suddenly, it slid completely open. Soft footsteps thudded on the wooden floor as a girl in a white dress came running towards me.

"Who are you?" was the first thing I instinctively asked, still kinda half-awake.

"Link, it's me!" the girl gasped. "Zelda!"

"Right, Zelda..." I closed my eyes, trying to relax. There was an awkward silence, and then I realized what was going on. "Zelda!" I gasped back, shooting up, groaning when pain coursed through my back.

"Wow, for a second, I thought you'd forgotten me." She sighed out in relief, sitting down next to me.

There was another silence as we both contemplated the walls. No longer did I feel like knowing who invented white lights, even if that WAS a good question.

"So, uhh, Link..." the blonde suddenly cleared her throat. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, thank you. You?" I asked.

"Pretty good for someone who came back to life shortly after dying." She giggled sadly. Another silence fell between us. And I wasn't able to break it. "I just... came to say thank you." She suddenly choked out, turning away from me and staring towards the door. "Without you, I would've stayed dead."

"I wouldn't have wanted you to die..." I sighed out, looking at the back of her head. "Frankly, I don't know how I did it, but I did it."

"Thank you... For saving my life... Even though I have been a burden to you so far..." she choked out again, sounding like she was sobbing. I wasn't sure, though.

"Of course you're not. I wouldn't let you die." I smiled. "You're a friend!"

There was another silence, stricter this time. Her saccadic breathing stopped for a moment, and she tightly gripped my sheets.

"A friend, huh?" she calmly asked.

"Best friend." I nodded warmly.

"Best friend?"

"What else?" I asked, wondering why she was acting strange.

"A best friend." She suddenly scoffed, whipping her head towards me, eyes red, brimming with unshed tears. "That's all?"

"What else would you be?" I asked, confused.

"You are a douche, Link." She muttered, turning away again.

"What did I do?" I asked desperately. Maybe she was mad at me? What did I do to make her mad? I didn't want her to be mad!

"You... You are you!" she growled out, frustrated. "And that's the whole goddamn problem!" she turned back to me, and now, I clearly saw tears of sorrow leaking down her cheeks.

"Wha-"

"You're just that innocent, adorable, naive Link!" she shook her head, crying out.

"What the hell is wrong with that!"

"Everything!" she looked at me desperately, wiping some tears out of her eyes. "Everything!"

"What did I do! Just tell me!" I ordered, feeling kinda desperate. Why was I losing her like this?

"You are an ignorant fool, Link! You saved my life, I'm grateful, but why won't you see beyond that?" she sobbed, burying her face in her arms.

There was another silence where I guiltily looked down at my white sheets. I really wished I could wonder on who invented white lights right now, but my brain was overloading.

In the end, I slowly bent forward and gently circled my arms around her shoulders, setting my chin down on top of her right one.

"Whatever I've done, I'm sorry." I whispered into her ear, trying to calm her down.

"Sorry... Sorry is such a simple word to say... It doesn't solve anything, Link. Nothing. Nothing at all." She calmed down, gently speaking to me in that teary voice of hers. My heart wrenched as I desperately tried to find a way to get her to smile again.

"Then what can I do to make it up to you?" I whispered in that same gentle voice.

"Pass to acts." She simply muttered.

I let go and retreated back, wondering what that meant.

"What acts?" I asked, relived that she wasn't crying anymore. "Do you want me to bow before you?"

"Oh please." She kicked her shoes off and slowly climbed on my bed, her red-rimmed eyes staring at me. She kneeled right in front of me and put her hands in her lap. "Do you only act, or are you truly this naive, Sir?" she asked, a formal tone slowly creeping into her voice.

"Sir?" I raised a brow, a smirk creeping onto my face. "Zel, we're best friends, you know I won't have you calling me by some imaginary title."

"May I be as bold as to inquire an answer?" she asked again, raised her own brow in a non-amused way.

"I-uhh... I don't know. I guess I'm just a little slow, I think..." I muttered, wondering what the hell she was getting at.

"I see. So it is normal that you don't pick up hints as fast as anyone else, then?" she asked, holding her chin up.

"Zelda, I don't get it. Please tell me why you're acting so weird." I pleaded.

"I shall not, my good Sir. For I cannot open my heart to you in the state you are now." She shrugged, sliding off my bed.

"Wait wait wait! Is this about me being reckless and being in the hospital! Are you mad at me for that!" I asked, holding out a hand towards her.

"I certainly am. But that is not all, and until you realize what your surroundings are, I shall not tell you the rest. Good day." She whispered, going for the door.

"Wait, wait!" I yelled out. "I'm in a hospital. That is my surrounding environment." I tried to keep her here. I had to figure out what her problem was. I'd never forgive myself if I didn't.

She slowly turned around, her white dress swishing at her ankles, and walked back to my bedside.

"Yes." She nodded curtly. "Your surroundings are hospital sheets, floors, and walls. But why is it that all I see is red, and all my surroundings are blurred by accumulated tears? How is it that I see things you don't? May I inquire that, Sir?" she cocked her head.

"I-I'm sorry, Zel." I shook my head, sighing out in defeat. "I don't know what's wrong. Are you sure you're okay?" I asked, just in case.

"How dare you suppose I am mad!" she huffed indignantly, turning around to leave. I suddenly sprang out and caught her dress in the back.

"W-Wait. Don't go yet. Please at least tell me why you're so formal all of a sudden." I pleaded.

She turned back, and her cool expression suddenly melted as she saw the pleading look on my face. She composed herself again and turned around completely. I let her go and retreated back to my sitting position.

"Because..." she sighed, looking out the window. "I am a Daughter of the King. And until I learn to love and trust, I shall not be free of that title. And as a Daughter of the King, it is my duty to honour, respect, and serve men." She dropped on my bed, looking at the floor.

"You don't have to respect me so formally, Zelda. I'm your best friend, right?" I tried smiling a little to make her feel better.

"Best friend..." she put her palm up and made a fist. "Such a fragile bond." She turned to me. "Would you be willing to break that bond, for the better or for the worse?"

"I would never break our bond, Zel. You know that." I gasped.

"Then you will never know what I feel." She whispered.

"Why, do you want me to shatter our bond and throw it away?" I asked gently.

"Yes."

That single answer made my heart drop. She really must have been angry at me.

"To survive, you must make sacrifices sometimes. Right now, if you want to progress in your life, you must absolutely destroy that bond." She advised.

"Will that mean I'll never see you again?" I choked out, completely destroyed.

"Once you break those bonds, you will not see me anymore. You will see someone else." She calmly explained, as if she didn't feel anything for the sorrow I bore.

"I don't want to see anyone else, Zelda..." I choked out, trying to keep my emotions at bay. "I just want you."

"Dear Goddesses, Link..." she suddenly got back up on my bed, slowly advancing towards me. "I wish you would understand that already. I just wish you would." She dropped right in front of me, sitting on my legs. I winced as pain hit me in the legs, but it disappeared again not long after.

"What is it you want, Zelda? Is it fame? Money? Power? Jewels? Dresses? Men? What can I give to make you happy?" I asked.

"Link." She laughed bitterly, slowly looking up into my eyes. "I'm a woman." She snickered as if it had a whole other meaning behind it.

"I know that." I sighed out, kinda annoyed by this game of Guess-What-The-Hell-Is-Screwed-In-My-Head.

"You don't!" she simply exclaimed before a light, yet scarring slap hit me in the cheek.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see any more. Why was this hurting so much? Why did this hurt so bad? Why? Why!

"Link, you have to understand that there is a meaning behind words." A voice suddenly breathed from next to my ear. I slowly opened my eyes, as if afraid of what I would see. There was nothing new, except for the fact that Zelda face was much closer now.

I blushed unintentionally, finally realizing how wrong this position seemed. I wish I could tell her off, but now that her eyes were up close, I could discern sorrow and pain burning in those violet irises. I didn't want to hurt her anymore.

"And as a woman." She breathed, leaning closer, putting her forehead against mine. "You have to know I always want more."

Everything struck me at the instant. If it was a real hit, I would probably be catapulted all the way back to Termina. So many questions were soaring through my mind, and I didn't know which one to concentrate on. I only knew that right now, I had to do something else than just stare.

"Break those bonds, Link." She raised her hands to my shoulders and caressed my skin gently. "Shatter them, throw them away..." she encouraged, raising her hands to my burning cheeks. "I know what heat feels like. I know what I felt during my resurrection process. I want that. Link, I want so much more. Give me everything you can give me." She breathed, closing up, her eyelids half open.

My eyes widened. This is what she wanted all along? Love? Not fame, not money, not men. She wanted love. I could give her that. I wish I could have realized earlier. I could have saved her from all the sorrow accumulated in those eyes of hers. But I was too stupid and naive to realize that. Now, she had to let all that sorrow go. I would help her achieve that.

"Give it to me..." she demanded sweetly, her breath tickling the tip of my nose.

"I'm..." I gulped down, slowly lacing my hands around her waist. "I'm all yours, Zelda."

"Thank you." She giggled softly.

There was silence, but this time, I couldn't have been happier. I slowly bent forward, not wanting rush anything. Everything has its time.

My heart was hammering wildly in my chest as I watched her rosy lips come closer and closer. This is it. Take all you can, give nothing back.

Two inches... One and a half. One... I wish my heart would stop beating so loudly in my ears so I could count right. Oh wait, half an inch... Quarter... One breath away.

The door suddenly slammed open, Dark running in cheerfully.

"YO LINK!" he screamed, staring at me. He suddenly paled and gasped. "Holy- I'M SORRY, YOU DIDN'T SEE ME! BYE!"

And he ran back out.

We both stared at the open door, wondering what the hell that was about. A second later, Sheik poked his head in and stared at us wide-eyed.

"Holy crap." He whispered, then grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry, I'll close the door now!" he apologized profusely before slowly sliding the door back into its place.

I sighed. Why now? The magic had faded away.

"I'm sorry these two losers are my friends." I apologized quietly to the girl on top of me.

She immediately became tomato red and almost threw herself off of me.

"N-No problem." She grinned nervously. "I-I-uhh..." she blushed furiously, looking at the ground.

"Zelda." I called with a smile. "It's okay."

She clutched the fabric around her heart area and nodded, still blushing.

"R-Right... W-Well, I've been given my leave, so, uhh, I think I'll go to Tetra's house to get some rest. G-Get well soon, Link."

With that, she coughed nervously, quickly slipped her shoes on, and promptly ran out of the hospital room.

I dropped on my pillow, sighing. Almost. Just a hair's length away.

The door slid open again and the two boys who broke our moment came striding in, looking guilty.

"Did we break a moment?" Dark squeaked nervously.

"Yes." I simply answer like it was nothing.

"You didn't, uhh, you know..." Sheik blushed, looking at the ground.

"No, I did not get laid." I shrugged, swinging my legs over the bedside casually.

The two boys sighed out in relief and muttered some things. I didn't listen to their gibberish though and concentrated on getting up.

"So what was so important that you had to rush in like this?" I asked, kinda pissed at them for ruining my moment.

"T-The doctors said you had your leave." Sheik announced.

There was a silence and I sighed out, heading for the door.

"You idiots killed my private space for that?" I snickered.

There were apologies following me till we got to Dark's house, where they finally stopped after I yelled at them to quit it.

_...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..._

"Mmm... You're too slow." I grinned as I ducked a punch from Dark. He completed his swing, and chained with a side sweep with his leg, but I back flipped and landed a bit away from him.

"No, you're just too fast." He panted, lunging to my side for a hook. I quickly raised my arm to block one of his infamous powerful punches, feeling my bones ring at the impact, and used my other arm to punch him in the stomach.

Dark groaned in weariness and stepped back, panting.

"Can we stop now?" he asked between breaths, and I nodded, wiping some sweat off of my forehead.

"Yeah, enough sparring for one day." I chuckled through pants as we both high-fived on the side and bumped our knuckles.

"I still don't get the sense of sparring outside on such a hot day. And for this long, too." Sheik muttered out from his spot from under the trees. "It's been three hours you guys have been trying to beat each other senseless." He snickered, turning the page he was reading in the book in his hands.

"At least we're not nerds who sit down and read a book in the shade while others work out." Dark threw back with a sly grin.

"At least I know what my limits are, and there is no way in hell that's I'm sparring on a hot day like this." My blond friend muttered, concentrated in his book.

"Yeah, but either way, we have to get stronger before the Muratate comes back." I whispered more to myself than to the others, but they must have heard because they shut up and listened.

A gloomy cloud suddenly moved above us, and even if it was a beautiful, sunny day, I think all of our moods dropped a bit.

"With all this talk of conspiracy and war..." I shook my head, and stared at both of them. "Guys, we can't be weak anymore. There is going to be a time when we are going to max out our potential and heighten our strengths, as well as patch our weaknesses." I told them.

"I agree." Sheik nodded.

"You're reading a freakin book, how in hell does that confirm you understood the idea of getting stronger?" Dark sweat dropped.

"Excuse me." Sheik lifted his eyes from his book and glared at Dark. "I'm the main defence of this team. Spy, intellectual,-" Dark snickered at that. "- and sensor of our squad. My techniques need a lot of control over tsuyosa, and physical fighting is not one of my excelling points. Acrobatics is, though, something YOU fail at." He finished, throwing a death glare at Dark.

"Yeah, but I'm much stronger, being the team's main offensive force. First kill and charging into battle are my specialities. You can't even compare one of your lame flips to my tsuyosa punches. They'll blast you off your feet!" my raven-haired friend grinned.

"Yeah, Dark, but not only are your acrobatics not very advanced, but your control on tsuyosa is very weak. You spend it like mad and then wonder why you're so tired." I groaned.

"And what are you, some kind of ultimate god?" Dark snickered amusedly.

"Actually." I cleared my throat. "I'm the main strategist of the team, also backup defence and offense. I'm flexible enough, and my unwavering grip on my chikara is one of my strong points. My stamina is high, but I lose consciousness easily after too much effort. What I need to work on are all of these points, because right now, I'm not doing so well..." I gritted my teeth.

"Picture it as a chart, Dark." Sheik raised his finger and started explaining. "The chart contains defence, offense, tsuyosa control and stamina. You chart would have a very high arrow on offense and stamina, but your arrows are low in the other sections. My chart would have very high arrows on the defence and tsuyosa control, but not with offense and stamina. Link's chart would have medium-sized arrows on every spot, which makes us a well-balanced team..."

"But not a strong team." I completed Sheik's sentence. "Which is why we all have to work on our weak points."

"Right." The two boys nodded simultaneously.

"Alright boys, let's go." I turned around, facing the open field. "Dark, remember that tree-climbing exercise we did in Sheikah elementary school? The one where you gotta climb a tree without your hands by adhering yourself to the bark with your tsuyosa? Do it. Go up and down the tree, and make sure to never let out more chikara than needed. As for you, Sheik, let's work on our hand-to-hand combat. You and I will be sparring. Questions?"

"Yes." Dark piped in, lifting his hand. "Can I put on a shirt now?"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**Author's Notes:**

**The breakers? Or, right, I forgot. Well, BitchFiction. Net won't allow the use of successive *'s and dashes, so these are my new paragraph breakers. I am sooo pissed off at them now, I have 32 stories to edit the breakers for _**

**Alright, the tree-climbing exercice is directly taken from Naruto, just as many of the elements here are. I don't own Naruto or Zelda, but Link does own Ganon, though :3**

**Did you guys see the trailer for New Zelda Wii! :D Or should I say, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword? ;D It's soooo epic, especially the "WHEEE RANDOM CLIFF JUMP~" part at the very end :DD I'm hyped for this, although the graphics are enough to tell me this REALLY won't correspond to the hypothesis I made on the background ):**

**Alright, important note. This chapter was very short, and took very long to write. I think it's not-so-okay-but-okay-anyway if you leave a story to fade away with time, but the worst part, for me, is when you update. Everyone wakes up again and realizes it's been a long time since they've gotten an alert for this, and read, and finding it disappointing, feel let down and sad, and complain.**

**This is what I wanna talk about. Please don't complain guys. I know, after all I have(n't) done, I'm in no place to request that, but please, listen for a while.**

**Don't complain or whine or pressure me. Believe me, I'm killing myself inside out to write this better and faster. It doesn't help when I get an expectation bar set high above my head by comments like "Please update soon or I'll die!" or "Update or I kill joo! Just kidding ;P"... Even the just kidding part won't make me feel better because I know that the phrase must come from somewhere deep inside you heart, and you, in reality are NOT kidding. So please, for the past 4 months of so, I've felt pressure over me every time I opened my computer, and I felt pressured to write, but I couldn't even get a word out. I really feel stressed, and I can't even calm down. Every time I open my computer, there's this pressure that crashes over me, and i hurts as if someone was whipping me to write. And I'm extremely serious about this, I really really am. So please, for the sake of my fcking sanity, don't. Pressure. Me. **

**That aside, I really appreciate that you guys actually keep reading this. I'm not worthy of having such loyal fans, not after I abandonned you. I'm so mad at myself, I can't even begin to describe how angry I am.**

**I won't abandon this story, nor you guys. You're too precious to me, and not just because you're reviewing and raising my review count. No, that's not it. I love you guys because you keep reading no matter what, and have never left my side. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. Thank you, really, I don't deserve your kindness.**

**Until the next chapter... Thank you for reading, and if you don't mind leaving me a thought in a review, then go ahead. I'm sorry for being such a self-centered bitch.**

**(Lol the A/N's were longer than the chapter itself, I bet ;P)**

***Also, since this story is really vague in my mind, previews won't have detailed dialogues in them anymore, just the name of the next chapter. Soz D=***

_-Next Time: Pass or Fail: the Ultimate Test_


	7. Pass or Fail: The Ultimate Test

**Author's Notes:**

**I had a bunch of alibis, mostly concerning school and my two other stories (one of which finished with over 300 reviews and 12000 hits :D), but then my internet cut off as I saved this document, so I lost them all, and now, I do not feel like writing them all again.**

**But let me say this: Sorry. I really haven't been up to writing Zelda lately. My Zelda muse is dead, I can't find any inspiration nor motivation, and this story has become more of a chore than an enjoyement for me.**

**Then again, I never said I'd discontinue it. It's on semi-hiatus, that's for sure, but I'll never ever discontinue it.**

**Also, on another note, Lady. Zayriah, if you're still reading this for some reason, the oneshot you were promised is done, it only needs to be posted now. Wavebreeze, my dear, trusted, amazing friend is the one who's gonna put it up (:**

**Also, the title isn't meant in the way I meant it to be 4 months ago, but I somehow made it fit :D Let's see if you can tell what "test" I'm talking about in this chapter ;)  
**

**Anyways, hope you don't hate me enough to kill me yet, and please enjoy.**

* * *

Sweat dripped down my face as I narrowly evaded a sweeping kick from above, and I dropped low before pouncing back up, elbowing Sheik in the stomach. He coughed and back flipped away, holding his stomach as he panted.

I took the time to rest, feeling tired and extremely hot. The sun was burning from above, slowly melting the spring snow as summer got closer and closer.

It's now been a week we've been training relentlessly, and hopefully, getting better.

And the Muratate still hasn't returned.

"Break." I called, dropping onto the ground almost simultaneously with Sheik. Dark must have noticed because he rushed to our side and dropped as well, making us snicker.

"I do believe we've been doing our best up until now..." Dark groaned in weariness. "Can't we just go to the beach or something now?"

"No Dark, we have to keep practicing and hone our skills. It's very probable that we'll have an all-out war on our hands soon, so we have to do our best."

"Well you got that strange power of yours, so it's not like you need to practice..." my ebony-haired friend whined in annoyance, making me stiffen.

That's right.

That power the Muratate was supposed to explain to me...

And that I missed because of my temporary ADD...

I'd totally forgotten that.

Suddenly, I feel much more anxious for our village's leader's return.

_...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..._

It seems like my calls were answered soon enough. It was only a little past the first hours of the evening when Beth came running to us, giggling.

"Hey boys, did you hear?" she winked flirtatiously at us. "Rumours say the Muratate's finally here, and she's currently in her office preparing for the war!"

"Oh really?" I asked, interested. "Then I should go pay her a little visit. Thanks, Beth."

"No problem, sweetheart." She blew me a kiss, and I awkwardly waved before turning around, going for the Muratate's house.

"That girl is freaky." Sheik simply commented.

"I second that." Dark also nodded.

"She's just growing up too fast for us, that's all..." I whispered with a small smile.

"Tell yourself what you wanna believe, oldie." Dark rolled his eyes, getting him and Sheik to laugh and high-five behind my back.

I simply rolled my eyes at their enthusiasm and Sheikah jumped across the street, heading as fast as I could towards the Muratate's house.

My answers are waiting.

I got there a little while later, Sheik and Dark always following me. We knocked at her door and simply waited for a while. I had just about had enough of waiting when it suddenly opened, inviting, yet gloomy.

We stepped inside, closing it behind us, and immediately made our way down to where we knew the village leader's office was. We stopped in front of her door, noticing the light filtering from below, and knocked.

"Come in, Link, Sheik, Dark." Midori-sama called from the inside.

We simply pushed the door open and walked into the light-flooded room.

"Welcome back, Muratate." I was the first to speak.

"Yes, it is nice to be back home after such long travels and so many diplomatic issues to resolve." She smiled back.

We stayed silent for a moment before I decided to cut to the chase.

"Muratate, I have a question."

Her smile all but dropped in a flash, and she got up, pulling some chairs for us.

"Sit, and then we'll talk."

We did as told and sat in silence as we waited for her to prepare herself. I wonder why she's so stressed about me asking this question. And besides, HOW did she know I was gonna ask THAT question?

In any case, here goes nothing...

"I want to know what the green chikara I used to heal Zelda the other week was. Everything." I firmly asked. "Please don't leave anything out."

There was a small silence, and then the Muratate's eyes went to the floor.

"I tried to hide this from you for as long as I could, but... It seems destiny will not have it so..." she lifted her gaze and settled it deep within my eyes. "Then, as Leader of the Village Hidden in the Blades of Grass, it is my duty to reveal your lineage to you. But be warned. Not everything is a fairytale, and yet the truth must come out someday, no matter how sad or bloody it is."

"I'm ready." I nodded, gulping down. I was finally about to find out everything about my existence. And yet, it unnerved me. I didn't even know what I was up against. Battles of words were something I'd never been good at.

"At the beginning, there were three Goddesses. These three Goddesses created the world, and left behind a sacred relic that represented their power. The embodiment of that relic was named the Triforce. Link, you should know of this. The Triforce is omnipresent in old Hylian folktales."

I nodded, remembering what she was talking about. Some books I'd read on my race had contained references to the Triforce.

"The Triforce was hidden somewhere to keep mortals from getting access to its immense power. But one day, one brave adventurer sought it out and found it, touching the relic. His body was old and not fit to absorb the godly powers within the Triforce, and so, after granting his wish, the Triforce split in three and retracted within the man's daughter. That woman gave birth to three kids, who then had families, and so on. This was about ten thousand years ago."

"And what does this old folktale have to do with my power?" I asked, my throat dry and constricting.

"The Triforce was unconsciously passed down by the family members of this man, but it never appeared up until now." The Muratate sighed and looked at me straight in the eye. "You must have realized it by now. You, Link Gaiden, are the bearer of the Triforce of Courage."

An expectant silence followed her words, but I simply froze. Triforce of... Courage...? How is that even possible? The Triforce is just a myth, after all!

"This power, it is sought out and hunted by a lot of people who would do no good if they had their hands on a piece. You, as the bearer, must keep it, protect it, and only use it when you see fit. That's your job." She explained seriously.

"But... that doesn't explain how I friggin brought Zelda back to life..." I sighed, shoving my hands into my pockets and leaning back against the chair.

"It actually does. The Triforce is like chikara. You can use it to cast Sheikah techniques, but since not everyone has a Triforce piece, you can't cast techniques that directly affect other people."

"Then how...?"

"That is the part that's hardest for you to swallow." The Muratate sighed. "The only reason why the techniques cast out of desperation using your Triforce worked on Zelda... Is because her body is used to that power."

"Oh no... Does that mean-"

"Yes. Zelda is also a bearer. The bearer of Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom."

"Ah, this can't get any worse!" I groaned in desperation. "How long have you known about us?"

"About you, I've known about it your entire life. It's the reason why you were saved from that massacre in your village. You, as a bearer, could not be killed under any circumstances, or the Triforce would be exposed."

I looked down sadly. I never actually remembered my old village... but gee, sure feels nice to know you wouldn't have been saved if you hadn't been the bearer of some super ancient secret relic.

"And Zelda?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Frankly, we never knew until your little stunt with her. We'd been looking forever for the bearer of Wisdom, and now you just waltz up and use your technique to insert your Triforce's power into her and bring her back to life, and POOF: one bearer of Wisdom, ready to go."

"And... What about Power? I thought there was another piece to the Triforce..." I mused out loud.

"Power... Power is an issue." Midori bit her lip. "We don't know for sure who Power's host is... But... We have strong reasons to believe Ganondorf has gotten a hold of it."

"Ganondorf?" I blinked for a moment, surprised, then realized the gravity of her words. "So all this time, I've been dancing in the palms of a maniac who's only waiting to kill me to gain my Triforce piece?"

"Yes, although no one could have foretold. A small investigation and lots of proof-less base made us deduce he was the holder of Power. It would explain a lot of things.

"So what do we do now? Get locked up in a bunker and be protected from Power all our lives?" I scoffed, not amused.

"Of course not. Power must be brought down so that the world can regain its balance again. If this war goes all-out, there will be too many casualties, and Hyrule will cease to exist. Labyrennians are practically begging to find an opening to attack us, imagine if Ganondorf were to decimate half the Hylian people and leave us down on the floor like that." The woman steeled her gaze.

"That wouldn't be very good, huh?" Dark whispered from behind me, getting Sheik to muffle a laugh.

"So what should I do?" I asked again, getting impatient.

"You, Link, will defeat Ganondorf."

There was silence.

And then...

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Funny. Now, can we get back to the topic?" I snickered, not amused by this. Who me? Defeat Ganondorf? Nice joke.

"It's true. There's no point denying it. The only way to defeat Ganondorf is to use the Triforces." She nodded seriously.

Wait, TriforceS?

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoaaa, I don't think you've realized what you just said, but..." I gaped. "You're implying Zelda's gotta fight too?"

"You can't do it without her, and she can't do it without you. Courage and Wisdom must work together if they ever want to free Power."

"Alright, I have to go digest this. Excuse me." I shook my head with a frown and got up.

"One last thing before you go. Ganondorf has captured the Triforce of Power forcefully. You have to set it free by defeating Ganondorf. The Triforce of Wisdom is calm and collected, a strategist, but your Triforce, Link, it doesn't think most of the time and only rushes into battle. That means that sometimes, when your desire or anger is too high, the Triforce will take over. Your mind will shut down, but your body will obey to the Triforce until you wake again. During that time, I don't even know what you could do. You could erase an entire village off the map if you wanted to. So please." Her eyes looked pleadingly up to me. "Please be careful."

I looked down at her, analysing the emotion in the eyes, then sighed.

"I will."

With that, I opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind me and plunging me in darkness.

_...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..._

I was woken up by a slight rustle, and instantly snapped my eyes open, looking down. I then realized that I was still in the tree on which I'd decided to take a nap. It was a lone tree on my old residence's land, all that was left of my past days. The ashes of my burned house stood a little further away, black and charred from the fire that almost killed Zelda and I.

Speaking of whom, a blond head suddenly popped into my view, and I gasped as Zelda climbed up next to me and sat on a branch.

"Zelda!" I croaked tiredly. "Are you crazy? It's practically midnight, first of all, what are you doing out here? And second of all, what are you doing up here? Get down, it's dangerous!" I panicked.

"Oh relax, Link. I'm fine." She smiled, making my heart leap and my muscles relax.

I sighed and leaned back against the branch, lifting my eyes to the starlit sky.

"Midori told me about the Triforce..." she suddenly whispered.

"Oh, she did?" I bit my lip. "How do you feel about all this hero stuff?"

"I think... I think it's a good thing." She giggled. "Maybe it's just me and my immature fantasies of heroes and princes on white horses, but... I think that I'll be relieved if I save the world somehow. It'll finally give a meaning to my existence..."

"You think so?" I grimaced. "It's quite dangerous, actually. As a Sheikah, I'm a trained warrior, a war machine, practically, but you, you're just a woman..." I coughed, knowing how sexist that sounded. "I mean, you're... you're a delicate flower blooming in the middle of a beautiful field. One gust of wind too hard, one drop of rain too much, and the fragile little petals will start falling until there is nothing left of the poor little porcelain flower." I whispered that last part out, Zelda's pale face coming back into view from that time where she practically died because of my own incompetence.

"Hey..." a warm hand was put on my shoulder, and I turned to look at Zelda, who was smiling. "I have the Triforce of Wisdom, don't I? There's no way I'll die." She giggled. "Besides..." she looked straight at me with her kind eyes, and I couldn't help but blush as I unconsciously inched closer. "I have you to protect me, don't I?"

"But what if I can't protect you? What if I am too late and you are hurt again because I can't do anything right?" I asked, eyes watering up. The last thing I'd wanna do is see Zelda die.

"You can do anything you want if you just try." She encouraged, and suddenly, it seemed like the gap between our eyes was nothing at all.

"Zelda, I... I don't know what I would do if I failed you... Not after you put such high expectations on me..." I looked down, only to look up again when her hands came on my cheeks, rubbing behind my ears tenderly, tracing the contour of my pointed ears tenderly. She then leaned in and comfortably settled her forehead against mine, smiling, probably at my surprised expression, plastered all over my face.

"You won't fail me, Link." She whispered, her sweet breath warming up my face, the honey-sweet scent washing over me and sending shivers down my spine. Her fingers stopped working their magic, but she was so close that I never even realized. "You won' fail me because you're not that kind of person." Her voice was laced with compassion, hope, and... love?

"How do you know? It's not like I'm some kind of god. I'm only human, I'm only mortal, and someday, I will die, too." I whispered, unable to detach my eyes from her violet gaze.

"And that'll be fine by me..." she inched even closer, the distance between our lips only a mere whisper away. "Because I... I will be there to die right by your side..."

I would have replied. I would have protested. I really would have. But just seeing her eyes, asking permission, seeing if I had any complaints, she made my heart melt, and I relaxed under her touch. She must have taken it as a sign because she smiled and softly, very very softly, pushed her lips on mine.

It must have been the work of the Goddesses. It can't be that two pairs of lips fit perfectly one into the other. I'd never even heard of such perfection. It's like... it's like we were destined to fall in love.

It didn't last long, but it was enough. It was enough to wake my starving heart and demand more, and it was enough to make me realize I had to do what I had to do to protect her.

"Well then..." I whispered, gently putting my hands on her waist to keep her from falling should she ever trip. "I will do all I can to defeat Ganondorf. I will bring him down. Because if I do, I will be able to save you from pain. I will be able to love you without any restraints and I will be able to please you without any restraints. As long as we are bound by the shackles of the Triforce, we can't do much, right? I'll change that. I will let you smile. I will let you love. You have every right to be loved. I'll give you all that and much more, anything you want. I'll die for you, if that's what you want. But there is one thing I will do. And that's bring Ganondorf down. Because after all of this Triforce madness is over... I intend to make you my wife." I smiled, my heart leaping at the sight of her beautiful lips curled upwards in approval. "Would you like that, Miss Zelda Harkinian?"

She waited for a moment before answering, and she only did so after a small breeze rustled through the leaves, playing with the long cloth of her dress.

"Yes, Sir Link Gaiden..." she took her hands off my face and grabbed mine that were still holding her hips in a gentle grip, taking them gently into her palms and putting them to her heart. "Yes, I would like that..."

And that's all I needed to make my world perfect.

_...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..._

"So where are we headed off to, again?" Tetra asked shyly as Sheik helped her up onto a horse.

"Central. We'll receive more orders from there. Basically, we're playing right into the enemy's hands, but that's okay, because we're gonna go down there and kick their butts right across the sea." Dark grinned as Midna jumped onto their horse.

"And ancient relic man here." Sheik motioned to me as I watched Zelda get up on our horse, ready to catch her if she fell. "Is going to kick major bad guy ass, get a bunch of fangirls, and become the hero who saved the land from imminent destruction."

"Ah, you're placing too much faith into me." I winced amusedly as I got up on Epona, Zelda snaking her thin arms around my waist as not to fall.

"Ugh, I hope this thing ends soon. I just wanna settle down, get married, do what the Daughters of the King are usually supposed to do." Midna whispered. "Then again, as long as I'm with Dark... It doesn't really matter, does it?" she smiled, putting her arms around my best friend's waist and laying her pretty little head on Dark's shoulder.

"Yes... Let's all hope this thing ends soon without anyone having to cry..." Zelda shuddered as a gust of wind toyed with her hair, and I tipped my head back over her shoulder to give her an encouraging smile.

"Don't worry. If that's what you want, I'll make sure it goes that way. I promise." I whispered lovingly, urging my horse into a trot to bring it upon the main road we were gonna take. Sheik followed behind and Dark closed up.

"Alright, we ready to go?" Sheik asked, looking around.

"Yep. Central's about a five-day ride if we only stop for the nights, so we should get going." Dark nodded seriously.

"Alright then." I snapped the reins on my horse, making her rear up on her hind legs and give out a whinny. "Let's go!" And as soon as her legs touched the ground again, she dashed off, Sheik and Dark following. The last person I saw, and would see, for a very very long time, was little Vaati, staring intently at me with his big crimson eye, watching me as I exited the village boundaries and only left behind a large cloud of dust and everything I'd ever believed in before today.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Vaati is important. I just won't tell you how or why. If you want a spoiler, you should check out the cover for this story. You can find it either on my deviantart (crazy-about-loz, a nickname I ought to change but am unable to change) or my webs site (zeldafanfics).**

**ZeLink action, yey (: I have rediscovered the joy of writing ZeLink. Although I have more prominent ways of having fun, so I probably won't be writing any more after this story.**

**Okay, I'm tired of dragging his on like this, so next chapter will have some action in it. I promise.**

**Yep, okay, 'nough chit-chat. I WOULD give you guys a preview of the next chapter, but I'm improvising from this point on, and can't really say what'll happen. **

**Probably... (SPOILERZZ ALERT) The gang will get to Central and receive orders and head out to Ganon's hideout, but on the way there, they'll come face to face with their first enemy... (END SPOILERZZ)**

**Yeah, that's that. If you still feel like it, review, of course I'll care and reply with utmost joy, but I don't really deserve any nice words from anyone, so don't feel obliged to review.**

**Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance (and while we're at it, Happy Easter, too -.-").**

**Thanks for reading, if you're still reading~**

_-Next Time (probably): The Very First Obstacle_**  
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